Unexpected Visit
by alittleinsane963
Summary: Oh my... three people are about to turn everything at CBI completely upside down!
1. Chapter 1

You know when you have an idea in your head and it just won't go away? Here's one of my many!

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It was a normal day at the office. Cho was sitting at his desk looking at cold case files, trying to find new leads. Van Pelt was seated in her chair, typing quickly and flipping through various windows she had up on her computer screen. And Jane? Where else would Jane be, but faking sleep on his couch? Rigsby was in the kitchen, looking behind him before grabbing one of the small containers of yogurt that Lisbon had told him to leave for other people to eat.

Lisbon watched Rigsby from her office as he pulled the yogurt out of the drawer and exited her office to catch him red-handed. Unfortunately, he saw her coming and quickly threw it back into the drawer. She walked past the kitchen door and said knowingly, "I saw that, Rigsby!" and continued on into the bull pen. Rigsby made a confused face only he could pull off before closing the refrigerator door and heading back to his desk. Jane smiled from his couch, having heard the entire exchange.

"Do we have anything new?" Lisbon asked to no one in particular.

"A virus that refuses to be fixed!" Van Pelt said angrily as she clicked her mouse with more force than necessary.

Lisbon frowned when no one else had anything to do. She wanted to keep busy, and they hadn't done anything for the past four days. It was beginning to drive her up the wall.

"Hey, Van Pelt," Cho said suddenly, "could you tell me who Robert Strecker is?"

"I would," Van Pelt snarled, "but my computer is being a bit… challenging at the moment."

"Yeah," Cho said without any emotion, "but don't the databases still work?"

"No!" Van Pelt snapped and glared at Cho, "Nothing is working!" She turned her attention back to the screen and cursed at it. "Useless piece of junk! It froze!" She punched the off button on the tower and leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed. "This is your fault," she said to Cho.

"My fault?"

"Yeah! I would have been able to keep it from freezing if I didn't have to look up at you!"

"I didn't make you look up." Cho shrugged before returning to his files, throwing the one with Robert Strecker to the side to look at again once the computer was functioning.

Lisbon rolled her eyes at her colleagues and retreated to the small kitchen for coffee.

Jane got up off his couch, his internal clock telling him that it was time for a cup of tea. "You know," he said to Lisbon as he set water to boil, "if you wanted to do something you could finish that report that you've been putting off."

Lisbon showed no reaction. She wasn't surprised Jane knew. But she was going to continue putting that report off until she couldn't anymore. The last case had hit her hard and she needed time to cool off before returning to it.

Jane looked back into the bull pen and chuckled as he watched Van Pelt shake her computer screen in annoyance.

"What?" Lisbon asked. She couldn't see the junior agent from where she was.

Jane sat down at the small table with his tea. "Van Pelt is just being frustrated."

Lisbon sat down at the table as well and looked into the bull pen in time to see Van Pelt hit the off button again. "Maybe it's time for a new computer."

"No it's not." Jane smiled mischievously.

The agent looked the consultant in the eye. "You didn't!"

"Didn't what?" Jane said innocently.

"You did! Jane! Why would you mess up the computer? What if we needed it?"

"Lisbon!" Jane feigned being hurt, "It pains me to have you accuse me of such a thing!"

Lisbon stood up and put her empty cup in the sink. "Go and reverse whatever you did to the computer!" she demanded before leaving the kitchen and heading back to the bull pen.

Patrick Jane smiled. Van Pelt would be angry at him, sure. But he'd broken the monotony of the day. She'd get over it.

He strolled back into the bull pen, over to a certain angry red head. "May I?" he asked politely.

"I guess it can't be messed up any further!" Van Pelt fumed before rolling her chair away.

Jane smiled again and hit a few keys. The computer screen went black, then came back up, fully functioning.

"Jane!" Van Pelt whined angrily.

His smile only got bigger before he flopped down on his couch.

The junior agent took a couple of minutes to take deep breaths and calm down before turning her attention to Cho. "What was that name you wanted me to look up, again?"

While Cho and Van Pelt conversed across the bull pen, their boss picked up a file off of Cho's desk.

Jane opened his eyes suddenly and looked past the entrance of the bull pen. He could hear someone… probably two someone's singing, and getting closer.

"I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee! Won't Theresa be so proud of me?" the voices sang, sounding very faint. A smile started to creep up on Jane's face. The voices were getting louder faster. "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee! Ouch! It stung me!"

Jane looked over at Lisbon. He could tell that she heard the last bit of singing, but didn't know what to make of it and ignored it, figuring it to be a drunk suspect, maybe. But her demeanor changed as soon as the second verse began.

"I'm squishing up my baby bumblebee! Won't Theresa be so proud of me?"

Lisbon's head shot up. She sucked her cheeks in slightly, and her knees buckled. She turned her head towards the source of the noise. "Oh, no!"

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Sooo... What did you think? Let me know in a review! It will be much appreciated. Have a nice day!


	2. Chapter 2

I told you all I'd update soon!

* * *

Two young men skipped into the bull pen, singing their last verse, "I'm throwing up my baby bumblebee! Won't Theresa be so proud of me? I'm throwing up my baby bumblebee! *burp* All better!"

The men were definitely Lisbons. They had raven colored hair, green eyes, and smiled the same way Lisbon did. Jane's smile was practically ear to ear. He'd thought the computer issue would be the highlight of his day, but oh how wrong he was.

Lisbon's was a different story than her consultant's. She was still stiff, and now she was angry.

"Well, I see we have to start," one of the men said jokingly. He looked at the other man, who could only be his twin. At the same time, they threw their hands up in the air joyously and shouted, "THERESA!" before suffocating her with hugs.

The first twin continued, "We just couldn't wait until you got off, so we just stopped by your apartment after the airport to see what you left us and then came straight here!"

The second twin attempted to imitate Lisbon after letting go of her, "Didn't I tell you to keep yourselves entertained and away from my office until I got home?"

The first twin responded, "Well, yeah. You told us to. But how could you expect us to wait a whole 5 hours, at least!?"

Twin two kept up his mimicking, "I ask one simple thing of you two and you can't even do that! I even gave you money to make sure you didn't get bored!" He threw his hands up and brought them down with a sigh in a perfect imitation.

"Well, yes, Theresa," twin one said, "Which is why we didn't spend the money, so you can have it back. We know how expensive those frozen dinners are!"

The twins dug into their pockets and pulled out their wallets, then each of them held money out to Lisbon. She just continued to glare at them, her cheeks getting redder and redder, and her eyes burning more and more.

"Well, if you don't want it back we can keep it, I suppose… we've gotten used to taking your money in college, anyway," twin one said and put the money back in his wallet. His brother followed suite.

Lisbon started towards her office, beckoning the twins to come with her.

"What was that?" Rigsby asked once Lisbon had slammed her door.

Jane let himself laugh for a minute before answering. "They're her brothers!"

Rigsby suddenly looked very excited. Jane watched him perk up like a puppy and laughed more. Cho, being Cho, simply shrugged and returned to his files. Van Pelt took her opportunity to smile while the Boss was out of the room. She had a view of Lisbon's office door from her desk and her jaw dropped, but she was still smiling.

Jane rose off his couch and over to Van Pelt's desk, ready to pretend he'd done something else to her computer if Lisbon emerged from her office.

"You missed it!" Van Pelt said quietly, as if her boss would hear her if she spoke any louder. "She just smacked them upside the head!" Jane chuckled a bit. "Man, she looks angry!" Van Pelt commented as she continued to watch the twins get yelled at by their sister.

"Of course she's upset!" Jane began explaining, "She told them to stay away from the office and wait until she got home. She also knows that they will embarrass her. I would bet that they know more about us than we think." Van Pelt looked at Jane and smiled again, then quickly returned to her computer and looked busy as the Boss's door opened. Jane rushed over to his couch and laid down.

It was clear that Lisbon was still angry. But Jane knew from the smile on her brothers' faces that they had won. Jane's own lips twitched into a smile at the thought that Lisbon's brothers had her wrapped around their fingers, even if she wouldn't admit it.

"Jane, I'm not going through this introduction twice so get off that damn couch," Lisbon ordered.

Behind her, twin one gasped while twin two whispered, "She said a naughty word!" She turned around and glared. The twins only smiled sweetly in response.

Jane got up off his couch and leaned against a desk next to Van Pelt.

"These are my younger brothers, James and Jack," Lisbon started.

The twin dubbed James spoke up, "Everyone calls me Jim, except for Theresa. Honestly, you need to let that go," he directed the last bit at his sister, but she started running over his words with her own.

"James, Jack, this is Agent Grace Van Pelt – " Lisbon was once again cut off by her brothers taking off their hats and bowing to Van Pelt before putting them back on. Van Pelt giggled and smiled. Jane looked at Rigsby from the corner of his eye and saw him inhale deeply while his lips tightened slightly.

Lisbon continued, "Patrick Jane,"

"Oh! You're the pain in the ass she complains about all the time!" Jack said with a huge smile.

Lisbon blushed, but Jane smiled. "Yup, that's me. You can just call me pain in the ass Jane."

"Will do!" Jack said back with a chuckle. He and his twin exchanged a look. Jane missed it.

"That's Agent Cho," Lisbon said. James and Jack shook his hand.

"We've come up with a goal for our time here, Cho!" James said. Lisbon looked over at her brother. Her face clearly said, 'I know where you sleep, James!' James chose to ignore this and carried on, "Our goal is to actually make you SMILE!"

"Yeah, sure," Cho said blandly and kept his interrogation room face on. Jane knew that Cho was challenging them, but he wouldn't ever admit that.

"And then right over there is Agent Wayne Rigsby," Lisbon concluded the introductions.

"Ahhh…" James started. But Lisbon had enough of their fooling around and slammed a hand over his mouth. James continued to talk, though you couldn't understand him anymore. To be safe, Lisbon clamped her other hand over Jack's mouth as well.

The twins gave each other sideways glances. All of a sudden, Lisbon pulled her hands off her brothers and wiped them on her trousers. Jane was trying hard not to laugh. He was certain that James and Jack had reverted to the old, 'lick your captor's hand to make them let go' trick. He was honestly surprised it worked.

"Hey, pain in the ass!" Jack called out.

Jane grinned while Lisbon smacked her brother upside the head.

"Ow! What'd I do?" Jack said, feigning innocence.

"Man, Theresa, if Grandma were here…" James said, shaking his head, "she'd try to come up with something to ground you. Maybe making you stay home from work a couple of days…"

"Anyway, _Patrick_," Jack said with a glance at his sister, "Is there room on that couch for two more people to lounge around on?"

"Take it," Jane invited.

James and Jack made running leaps for the couch. "Oh, dang! I see why you're on this all the time!" James said, pushing his back into to the back of the couch.

Lisbon pinched her eyes shut. "Would someone please tell me that there's something we have to do?"

"Sorry, boss. The criminals are all lying low this week," Rigsby said. He shrugged and went back to his desk.

"Don't fret, dear sister of mine!" Jack said, throwing a fist into the air, "We shall ensure that there is no boredom around these parts!" He leapt up from the spot he'd just gotten comfortable in. "Jim, I think these people need lunch!"

"A fantastic idea, ol' chap!" James responded, also getting up.

The twins approached their sister. "We need 40 of those bucks you took back given to us again."

Lisbon crossed her arms.

"Pweeease, Theresa? We are but poor just released for break college students!" Jack showed off his puppy dog eyes.

Lisbon sighed and handed over two twenties. "I swear you two are going to empty out the bank account."

"Thanks, Terry!" James said. He and Jack skipped out of the bull pen, towards the elevators.

"Terry?" Jane asked, returning to his couch.

Lisbon gave Jane a, 'Don't mess with me,' look, but since when had Jane obeyed such a request?

"If they're going to be here to annoy you, you might as well make the most of it," Jane said.

Lisbon was about to snap at him, but Minelli saved her from making a fool of herself. "Here's the address," he said, handing a piece of paper to Lisbon, "get there before that guy actually uses the gun he's holding."

"What?" Rigsby asked as he grabbed his things.

Minelli continued talking as the team threw all their things together. "This guy drank too much, found a gun, and is making demands. If we don't comply his daughter dies."

Lisbon's eyes were suddenly burning again. "Let's go! Come on, come on! Van Pelt! You don't need sunglasses!" She started towards the elevator, and the rest of the team followed quickly.

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Wow! Let me start off by saying that you all are AMAZING! I wasn't expecting such a response to the first chapter! Thank you so much!

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter as much as the... oh my gosh. I left you with another cliffhanger! I didn't really notice until now... Um... whoops...

Even if it's just to yell at me for another cliffie, please write a review!


	3. Chapter 3

The CBI SUV pulled up down the street from the house. Lisbon saw the man who was apparently the father holding a little girl by her long brown hair. They were inside a greenhouse, but the door was open so his demands could be heard. She jumped out of the car and hurried over to the people that were trying to keep the situation calm.

"CBI?" asked a man wearing a vest and was wired to the max.

"That's us," Lisbon said.

"This guy is demanding his wife."

"Well where is she?" Lisbon asked angrily. They were called out because some other people were too lazy to find someone's wife?

"Six feet under the ground, as of four months ago. Cancer," the man said. Lisbon nodded. "He's been out here for a good fifteen minutes; he says that he wants her here in an hour."

"Is he aware that she's dead?" Jane asked.

"He's not acting like it. His little girl, Bethany, tried to tell him, but she hasn't said anything since. I'd be scared to talk again if I was slapped by my dad, too."

Lisbon looked at the little girl, compassion and concern obvious on her face. "Ok, we'll start working. What's his name?"

"Jim Boris."

Jane noticed Lisbon's mouth twitch at the word 'Jim.'

"Alright." Lisbon turned to her team. "Van pelt, look up him and his wife. I want to know if there's any family in the area that we could get here."

"Got it!" Van Pelt said as she whipped her laptop out of its case.

"Rigsby, Cho, go talk to the police over there and find out what means we can use if worst comes to worst."

"On it, Boss!" Cho said before he and Rigsby took off.

"Jane, come on," Lisbon said as she headed over to take the negotiator's place. Jane followed her and picked up a spare set of headphones so he could hear the conversation from both ends clearly.

"Mr. Boris?" Lisbon asked.

"Who are you? What happened to the other person? Why haven't you gotten Audrey yet?" asked the man inside the greenhouse. His voice was full of anger. Jane started to get really worried for the little girl at the mercy of her crazy father. He couldn't tell if he would kill his daughter, or kill himself in front of his daughter.

"I'm Agent Lisbon, from CBI. We're working on finding Audrey, but we need more time," Lisbon said as calmly as she could.

"No! I already gave you an extra half hour!" Boris raised his voice.

"OK. We'll get more people on it, then. If we get close, but can't make it in time, will you give us more time?"

"If you find her, and need more time to get her here, I'll give you more time if I hear her over the phone!" Boris snapped.

"Damn," Jane said under his breath.

"Can I call you Jim?" Lisbon asked.

"No! You're not pulling that 'forming a relationship' crap on me!"

"Ok. Mr. Boris, can we talk to Bethany?"

"No! You can't do anything but find Audrey!"

"Ok, we're working on it," Lisbon said. She took off the headpiece and put it down and then let out a stream of curses, too quiet for most people to hear.

Van Pelt hurried over, still working on her laptop. "Boss, the closest relative is an hour and a half away."

Lisbon sighed and looked up before signaling the junior agent to continue.

"Jim Boris is 36 years old, he's a construction worker. He and Mrs. Audrey Boris had been married ten years before she was diagnosed with bone cancer. It progressed really fast. She died three months later. According to his work buddies, he lost it. He started drinking a lot, and it showed, even on Bethany. For the past month they've been wondering whether or not they should call Child Services for her," Van Pelt spoke very quickly.

"What about his daughter? What's her story?" Jane asked.

"Bethany Boris, 8 years old. She doesn't have anything in the system. But I looked through the Boris' bank history. She goes to a private school, about fifteen minutes from here. I called her teacher. She said that Bethany has become really quiet since her mother died. Three months ago, she started coming to school with bruises. If you were to believe her stories, she became the biggest klutz ever over night. Falling down stairs, chasing the dog (that they do not have), tripping over random things. The teacher said that if she came to school with a bruise again, she would hold Bethany after school until her father was picked up by police."

"Poor kid," Lisbon said, looking at the girl again.

"Boris has completely lost his mind, Boss. There's only one way this can end without a death," Van Pelt said.

"And that one way is dead," Lisbon sighed.

Jane broke the silence that had been cast over the group. "Bethany is only his hostage. I don't think he's actually going to kill _her_, I think she's just supposed to be out motivation to find his wife."

"That's a lot of thinking, and not a lot of fact, Jane. He's a drunken fool, we don't know just how unstable he is right now," Lisbon snarled.

"He is a drunken fool. And he knows that if the hour goes by, he's not going to continue to live. One way or another, he knows he'll die if Audrey doesn't come. The question is if he'll take Bethany down with him."

"Great, so if he knows that he's probably going to die, he's not going to care about what he does before he dies! That increases Bethany's chance of dying!" Lisbon snapped.

"He still loves Bethany, he doesn't _want_ her to die. If he did want to kill her, he'd be pointing the gun at her head, instead of her chest. He hopes that if he shoots her in the chest, and we shoot him that she'll pull through," Jane reasoned.

"No, Jane!" Lisbon shouted, "He doesn't! He stopped caring about that little girl long ago! Why do you think he threw her around? Because he stopped looking at her as a person! She was just a stress relief to him the past five months!"

Rigsby came over to the group before Jane could respond to Lisbon's outburst. "There's no other way into the greenhouse. From the inside, it looks like there was going to be a door built leading into it, but that door wasn't ever completed. They're trying to set up audio and a camera there."

Lisbon nodded. She knew that the team putting in the bugs would need Boris distracted. She took several deep breaths, then put the headset back on.

"Mr. Boris?"

"I don't see Audrey!" Boris snapped.

"We haven't found her yet," Lisbon said.

"Well try harder!" Boris demanded.

"Lisbon!" Jane whispered, "Let me try?"

Lisbon covered the microphone connected to Boris's cell phone. "If I give you this headset, Jane, you have to promise that you aren't going to do anything that is going to push him further! I do not want to bring an 8 year old to the morgue!"

"I promise not to do anything unless I'm certain that it will not lead to Bethany's death," Jane swore.

Lisbon took her hand off the microphone. "Mr. Boris, can someone else talk to you?"

"Fine!" Boris snapped.

Jane took the headset from Lisbon. "Jim?"

"I told you all not to pull that crap on me!" Boris shouted.

Jane was already being glared at by Lisbon. One more slip up and he'd lose control of the headset. "I'm sorry. I didn't hear that part. Mr. Boris, how's Bethany?"

"Fine, for now!"

In the back round, Jane heard a whimper and saw Boris tug on his daughter's hair. "Mr. Boris, what is it that you want?"

"I told you already! I want Audrey here!"

"Do you know that she's sick?" Jane asked.

Lisbon was suddenly right next to Jane, holding out her hand for the headset.

"Yes…" Mr. Boris admitted smally.

"When was the last time you saw Audrey?" Jane's voice was very smooth, and it kept Boris from flipping out.

"I… I…" Boris stuttered.

"You know where Audrey is, don't you, Jim?" Jane knew Boris would have too much going through his mind to pay attention to the first name.

"No…" Boris regained his regular voice, "If I knew where she was, why would I go through this trouble?!"

"Because you're confused. You want to believe that Audrey is somewhere close, and that she just won't pick up her cell phone. But Jim, you know where she is. The last time you saw her was a dream. Jim, you haven't seen your wife in four months."

Boris remained silent. Jane didn't see any dangerous change in his stance, and so he continued. "Jim, Audrey was really sick. Don't you remember? She had cancer, Jim."

Jane could see Boris fighting with himself internally.

"Jim, Audrey couldn't fight anymore. She got too tired, too sick." Jane watched intently as Boris's hand on the gun started shaking, but not out of anger. No, Jim Boris was too confused to be angry. "Jim, Audrey's dead," Jane said softly. "You miss her. Jim, Audrey can't come back."

Jim Boris's whole body was shaking now. The tears sliding down Bethany's cheeks started speeding up.

"Would Audrey want you threatening Bethany? What would Audrey do if she saw you threatening her princess, her baby?" Jane pushed.

Boris took the gun off of Bethany. "Let her leave the greenhouse, Jim, for Audrey."

It took him a short while to debate, but Boris let go of his daughter's hair. She stood there for a minute, then started to back up slowly, keeping her eyes on her father, and then turned and sprinted out of the greenhouse toward the agents that were across the big lawn.

Jane covered the microphone. "He's going to change his mind in less than twenty seconds; she's not going to make it!"

Lisbon looked at Boris quickly, who did in fact seem to be questioning himself. She took off across the lawn, met Bethany in the middle, and picked her up and ran off to the side, out of sight of Boris. After she hit the driveway, she ran down it and then back towards Jane, Van Pelt, and Rigsby.

Bethany wouldn't let Lisbon put her down. Van Pelt started wiping the girl's tears off with a handkerchief, but for all the good it was doing, she might as well not have been.

"Thank you for letting Bethany go, Mr. Boris." Jane tried to keep his spinning mind hidden. He couldn't use Audrey as a defense anymore. Henceforth, he was shooting in the dark.

Boris let out a long line of curses in response before he lifted the gun to his head…

"Mr. Boris, you don't want to do that!" Jane tried not to sound pleading. Sure, this guy was a crazy drunk, but he could be helped.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Boris said. His tone of voice indicated that he was beginning to panic. That was exactly what Jane did _not_ need him to do.

Jane took a deep breath. He didn't want to open up and show weakness, but it might make Boris see that there's hope. He risked referring back to Boris's first name, "Jim, your wife is dead. It hurts. I know, I've been there. Believe me. But this isn't you're only option. There are people out there who want to help you. Your daughter wants to have a father."

"Like I'm getting her back!" Boris quipped.

"True. You won't get custody of her back, but you can still be a part of her life. Jim, if you put the gun down, and come out with your hands up, no one will hurt you. You can come out, and we can get you help."

Boris seemed to be considering it. He was fighting with himself. All of a sudden, he threw the gun across the greenhouse and came out with his hands up. Someone rushed behind him and closed the door of the greenhouse so he couldn't change his mind. Cho came after that and handcuffed him and led him to a police car.

Jane gave a huge sigh of relief and took off the headset. He turned around to see that Bethany was still clinging to Lisbon. "He's not going to hurt you anymore," he said soothingly to the child.

"What happens now?" the little girl sobbed.

"You can come with us for now, if you'd like," Lisbon said. Her voice was unlike her normal one. Van Pelt realized for the first time that Theresa Lisbon did, in fact, have a maternal side.

"Ok," the girl said smally before burying her head into Lisbon's neck.

Jane could see from Lisbon's back that she was struggling to hold Bethany. Her petite figure couldn't handle such weight for too long.

"Bethany," he started.

The girl cut him off, "It's Beth."

Jane smiled. "Beth, do you mind if I hold you? Agent Lisbon has to drive us back."

Beth seemed to be debating the fact, but finally nodded. Lisbon handed the girl over. Jane could tell she was relieved as she began searching for her keys.

The man that caught the CBI team when they came in came over to Lisbon and shook her hand. "Good work, Agent Lisbon."

"Thank you. You didn't do so bad yourself," she responded with a weak smile.

Cho came over to the rest of his team. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yes. Go on and get in the car," Lisbon replied.

Rigsby and Cho started off. Van Pelt, Jane, and Lisbon walked slower.

Lisbon looked at the small girl in Jane's arms. "She fell asleep!" she whispered.

"She's had too much to swallow. It's her body's defense. Besides that, she's emotionally exhausted," Jane explained.

"We can't call Child Services, not tonight, at least! That'd just be too much," Van Pelt said, obviously very concerned.

"Well none of us can take her," Lisbon said.

"We don't have to take her home with us," Jane said, a smile playing on his lips. "We can just camp out at the office tonight. She likes and trusts us. She feels safe."

"I'm for it," Van Pelt said, "I'll stay."

"It's alright with me," Lisbon said.

"Good!" Jane's smile expanded. "She'll need her things then."

"I'll go get them," Lisbon said. "Van Pelt, assist."

Lisbon and Van Pelt started off towards the house.

"Hold on!" Jane said, catching up with them, "If she wakes up, she can tell us what she wants, and if she doesn't, I'll be able to tell what she would want."

Lisbon didn't protest. Instead she signaled to Cho that it would be a couple of minutes. He nodded and then the two agents, the consultant, and the little girl entered the house that had an eerie, creepy, and empty feeling to it.

* * *

LOOK AT ME GO!!!! An update every other day... I wonder how long this will last...

Alright, I know this wasn't the most upbeat chapter ever... but I'd still like to know what you'd think! Please review! It shall be much appreciated.

Another sidenote, if you have any questions, or suggestions, or see any mistakes, please send me a message!


	4. Chapter 4

Lisbon and Van Pelt placed Beth's possessions in the back of the SUV. They'd been in the house 15 minutes collecting the things that all of the adults thought she might want. She'd stayed asleep the entire time. By the time they exited, they'd gathered up all of the normal things someone would need for a sleepover, toothbrush and paste, hairbrush, pajamas, all that fun. However, they'd also gathered her pillow and comforter, moose plushie, what Jane said was her favorite cereal, bowl, plate, and cup, and a picture of her and a woman that had to be her mother.

Lisbon climbed into the driver's seat, Van Pelt had climbed over Cho to get to the middle (since both Cho and Rigsby refused to scoot over) and Jane managed to get into the car without waking Beth up.

Van Pelt started typing away on her laptop and suddenly smiled. "I found a way to keep her out of the system!" she said triumphantly.

"How?" Jane turned his head towards the back as far as he could without moving his body.

"Rule book says that if we can get a guardian and a social worker to sign off on it, she can stay with said guardian!" Van Pelt worked hard to keep herself from raising her voice above a whisper

"Well that's fantastic, Van Pelt," Lisbon said sourly, "Who are we going to get to be her guardian?"

"I already thought of that, Boss! Can I call her teacher?"

"Van Pelt! She's her teacher!" Lisbon raged, though still at a whisper.

"And there are only two days of school left! Either way, we're not going to make her go back, are we?" Van Pelt reasoned.

Lisbon sighed and gave in. Van Pelt smiled and pulled out her phone, looked up the teacher, and dialed the number at record speed.

"Miss Amor?" Van Pelt said when the phone was answered.

Jane could hear the voice of the teacher. She sounded anxious and very concerned.

"How's Beth? Is she alright?"

"Yes, Miss Amor, she's fine. Obviously shaken up, but not physically hurt," Van Pelt responded.

Jane could hear the woman sigh in relief. Then she asked, "Why are you whispering?"

"Because we're in a car back to CBI headquarters and Beth fell asleep."

"Oh, I see. Thank you very much for letting me know what happened!"

"That's not the only reason I called. Actually that's not the reason at all, I would have forgotten," Van Pelt confessed. "I called because we need your help." Van Pelt explained the situation. Miss Amor agreed without hesitation. Van Pelt gave the teacher her number and e-mail, and deepest thanks before hanging up.

Everyone in the car smiled, even Cho. Rigsby let out a chuckle. "Don't let Jim and Jack know you smiled, Cho."

"I don't plan on giving them such satisfaction. And if you tell them, know that you have a file, and that file has your address in it," Cho let his face fall back to normal.

"Oh, crap..." Lisbon said slowly, "James and Jack have been in the office, by themselves, unsupervised, for at least an hour and a half."

Jane let out a few low chuckles. In the back seat, Rigsby and Van Pelt were trying to stifle their laughter. Cho was being Cho. Lisbon may have applied a little bit more pressure onto the gas pedal.

They arrived at CBI headquarters 10 minutes early, thanks to Lisbon's sudden case of lead foot.

"Rigsby," Lisbon ordered, "help Van Pelt get Beth's things out of the back. I have to go commit double homicide." She leapt out of the car and closed the door quietly before dashing into the building. Cho waited by the back of the car in case an extra hand was needed. Jane eased himself out of the car, and was hardly surprised when Beth stayed fast asleep.

Lisbon had been caught by Minelli on her way to killing her brothers. By the time Jane reached them, Lisbon had been let go and continued on her way to the bull pen.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Jack shouted.

"We brought you all lunch, and now it's cold, and Chinese just doesn't taste the same reheated! And what's worse, you didn't tell us you were leaving and you didn't answer your phone!" James added.

"Pardon me for doing my job and trying to keep some money in our account!" Lisbon snapped.

Jane walked up behind Lisbon with a groggy, but awake 8 year old still in his arms. "Be proud, Lisbons. You have the super power of waking up heavy sleepers."

Van Pelt, Rigsby, and Cho exited the elevator and came to the bull pen, carrying brightly colored child's things.

James and Jack looked at their sister questioningly.

"I'm doing my job," was her reply before heading over to the couch that Jane had happily given up to help Van Pelt arrange Beth's sheet, comforter, and pillow over the brown leather.

Jane put Beth onto her sheets and tucked her in. Lisbon wanted so badly to smile and compliment him on his skill at dealing with children, but held back, not wanting to make the moment awkward. Beth was back asleep in seconds. Jane arranged the rest of her possessions on the floor so she'd see them when she woke up.

Jane then began heading out of the bull pen, towards the elevator.

"Jane!" Lisbon hissed, "Where are you going?"

Jane turned to face her. "An 8 year old little girl isn't going to want Chinese when she wakes up. She's going to want Spaghettios or grilled cheese. I'll be back in fifteen minutes." He turned and left.

Lisbon returned to the bull pen where she continued a whispered argument with her brothers. Van Pelt had grabbed a magazine from her desk and was flipping through it. She'd seated herself on the end of the couch, about three inches from Beth's toes. Rigsby took the paper work on the case and was writing away at his desk. Cho had taken the responsibility of reheating the lunch that had been cooling ever since James and Jack had gotten back.

True to his word, Jane returned exactly 15 minutes after he left, then got straight to work on making a grilled cheese sandwich, knowing that if Beth didn't want it, Rigsby would. And if she wanted Spaghettios, that'd only take two minutes. While the sandwich was browning to what would surely be perfection, Jane set up Beth's favorite plate and cup that they'd brought from her house. He knew she wouldn't want tomato soup with her sandwich, so he didn't bother with getting her favorite bowl. He then returned his full attention to the sandwich on the stove.

Lisbon walked into the kitchen and saw Beth's things set up. Well, there was no way a little girl would want to eat alone, and there wasn't a desk cleaned off enough for her to eat at in the bull pen. And 8 people wouldn't fit comfortably at that table. Lisbon walked back to where the rest of the agents (and family members) were. Cho had finished throwing everything into the microwave to bring the taste back to life, then threw all of it into the oven at a lower temperature to ensure that he didn't have to go through the process again. He had been sitting at his desk for the past seven minutes "Cho, can you go find a card table?"

"Sure, Boss," Cho replied. He put his book down and took off.

"Jeez," James commented. "What'd you do to get them all under your thumb like that?"

"I'm their boss, that's how," Lisbon responded.

"Well, you're our boss too, but we'd make you shoot rock-paper-scissors to see who would go get the table," Jack said.

"Are you trained to follow orders?" Lisbon asked.

"No... I'm being trained to fix sick animals, and Jimmy here is being trained to fix sick people," Jack said.

"There's your answer," Lisbon answered.

Soon after, Cho returned carrying a card table. He set it up in the kitchen after being asked, and then Lisbon set to work, setting out all the paper plates, styrofoam cups, and plastic silverware. She stood back and admired her work before heading back to the bull pen. "Hey, get into the kitchen and pick your spot. It's dinner time!"

Rigsby was up in a second. James and Jack weren't far behind. Cho finished the page he was on in his book before getting up. Van Pelt put her magazine aside, getting ready to wake up Beth to eat. Lisbon beat her to it.

Lisbon crouched down to be at eye level with the sleeping girl before placing a hand on her should and shaking her gently. Beth opened one of her eyes. "Come on, it's time for dinner! Aren't you hungry?"

Beth sat up and rubbed her eyes before getting up and following Lisbon into the kitchen. Her face lit up when she saw her cup that had Disney princesses plastered on it and her puppy dog plate.

Cho began pulling things out of the oven and handing them off to Rigsby. Jane turned to Beth and smiled. "Well, Miss Bethany, what would you like for dinner? We've got grilled cheese, or spaghettios."

"Ohhh…" Beth squealed, "Grilled cheese, please!"

"One grilled cheese sandwich, coming right up!" Jane cut the sandwich into fourths before putting it on the plate.

Beth looked down the table. The adults had already started spooning food onto their plates. Jack and Rigsby were even slurping up noodles. "Aren't we going to pray?" she inquired. Everyone looked at her and it made her shrink back into her chair a bit. Her mommy had told her to pray before every time she ate, and her class always prayed before lunch.

Lisbon put her fork and knife down, and so did her brothers and Van Pelt. Rigsby and Cho were slower to follow suite. Jane stood up. "I'll be back in a minute. Carry on without me." He left the kitchen.

Beth looked at the remainder of people sitting expectantly. She didn't want to lead prayer, but she wanted to pray. After a few awkward seconds, James cleared his throat and lead prayer. Everyone dug into their food afterwards. Jane returned to the room a few minutes later.

After an enjoyable dinner and small dessert made up of a fortune cookie, everyone retried to the bull pen. Van Pelt sat down in the middle of the couch, figuring there was no way Beth would want to sleep again. But she had guessed wrong.

Beth approached the couch, snatched her stuffed moose off the ground, got onto the couch, pulled the covers over herself, threw her legs onto Van Pelt's lap before she could scoot over, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

I'm sorry for the longer wait for the update. You know when it gets to that time of school year and all your teacher's realize they only have a couple of weeks left to squeeze in an insane amount of stuff? Yeah. We're down to that part at my school. Homework and projects galore!

Reviews motivate me to write and update! I really do like knowing what you all think. Please let me know!


	5. Chapter 5

Jane hardly slept. Not only was his couch taken and the floor uncomfortable, but his insomnia decided to be extremely annoying and refused to let him sleep for more than ten minutes at a time.

"_Daddy! You didn't cut it up!" his daughter said, examining her grilled cheese sandwich, "Mommy always cuts it up for me." His wife had gone out of town for a business trip._

_Jane sighed dramatically and pulled a knife out of the kitchen drawer to cut up his daughter's sandwich. When he turned back to the table, she was what was cut up and there was blood on the knife in his hand._

He snapped up once again from where he'd been dozing off and gave up on sleeping. He didn't want to if he'd keep having nightmares.

Jane looked out the window. It was still dark. Everyone else was sleeping. Van Pelt had leaned back on the couch, having not moved since after dinner. Rigsby had made his jacket into a pillow and was bent over on his desk. Cho was in a similar position, except that he had fallen asleep reading. Lisbon had given her apartment keys to James and Jack after making them promise not to ruin anything and had sent them off. Lisbon, herself, couldn't sleep sitting up as Van Pelt could, and so she slept on the floor as well, although another agent had lent her a sleeping bag they kept in their office for naps during long cases.

Jane got up and headed to the bathroom to clean up as well as he could.

"_Where have you been?" asked a man towering over her. Teresa opened her mouth to try to explain that she'd gone to get milk, but she shut her mouth again when a hand collided with her face. "Good God, I don't even know what use you are!" the man raged._

_Teresa held back her tears. She knew it was better to stay silent that let herself go and say that she did everything, while he was the useless one._

_The scene changed. Teresa was in a car. She looked over to her left. Her mom had let her sit in the front seat, despite the fact that she was still a year too young. All of a sudden there was the sound of a horn from the right. Teresa's mother swerved and the cars collided. Teresa screamed, and then looked away. But she was met with her father's face._

"_Why would you let her do that?" he screamed._

Lisbon leaned up so fast that her head spun. She realized her face was wet and started wiping it off.

"You can't sleep either," stated a figure in the doorway to the bull pen. Jane.

"No, I can't," Lisbon admitted.

"Nightmares?" Jane asked. Lisbon didn't answer, so Jane continued. "This case is reminding you a lot of your own past, isn't it?" Lisbon still didn't answer. It was too dark for Jane to see her, so she might get away with the truth if she didn't open her mouth. "Same with me," Jane confessed.

Lisbon turned her head towards Jane. The little girl. He was having nightmares about his daughter. She was having nightmares about her father. "Yeah, she does remind me of my childhood."

"Come on," Jane said and twitched his head towards the elevators. "I'll drop you by your apartment and you can change and all that fun, and then I can pick you up again when I'm done."

Lisbon didn't move. "What?" Jane questioned, "Are you going to try sleeping again?" She sighed and gave in.

Both Lisbon and Jane groaned when they stepped into the elevator. It was too bright.

Lisbon was leaned up against her door, pleased with herself. She'd managed to shower and get ready for the day without waking her brothers. However, she was displeased with the twins. They'd failed to lock her door, and they'd pay for it later. In the mean time, she waited for Jane to come back.

James was sprawled out on the couch. One of his legs had fallen off of it and he was drooling on Lisbon's upholstery. He'd be cleaning it up later, in a hurry, hoping his sister would never know.

Jack had been left with the recliner. He'd curled himself up. Jack was always a much neater sleeper than his brother.

Lisbon smiled in the dark. Her phone vibrated and she left her apartment without answering it. She got into Jane's old car and they headed back to CBI in silence.

When they arrived everyone was still sleeping. It was six o'clock.

"If they sleep in until 6 every day, I don't know how they get here at 7," Lisbon whispered.

Jane nodded, and then started showing off. "Van Pelt usually wakes up at 5:30 and leaves her place at 6:30. Cho normally wakes up at 5:45, though it only takes him twenty minutes to get ready. He likes to read the morning paper at home. Rigsby does actually sleep until 6. He lives closer to here than you think," Jane finished his monologue and smiled.

"Creeper," Lisbon said before heading to her office to awaken her computer.

Jane chuckled before heading to the kitchen. He got everything set up for Beth to eat breakfast except for putting milk in the bowl. Chortling at the box of Captain Crunch, Jane headed back to the bull pen. Van pelt was awake and flipping through her magazine again, or doing her best to. There was hardly any sunlight coming in from the blinds.

"Comfortable?" Jane queried.

Van Pelt looked at him and frowned. "Honestly? No. But I don't want to get up and risk waking her."

Jane observed that Beth's position over the night hadn't changed except for turning over. Her legs were still on Van Pelt. "Just get up slowly. She won't wake," Jane said with confidence.

Van Pelt looked unsure, but did as Jane said and succeeded. She quickly headed down the hall towards the bathrooms. Jane smiled again.

It didn't take much longer for Cho and Rigsby to wake up. After all the adults were up, Lisbon came out of her office and told them to run home and change into something clean. They didn't fight it and took off.

Jane and Lisbon hung around in the bull pen, waiting for Beth to wake up. He was examining the book Cho had been reading the night before, and she was using Van Pelt's computer.

Beth suddenly started twitching. Her face scrunched up, relaxed, and then tensed again. Lisbon watched the sudden fit. It wasn't until a tear slid down the sleeping child's face that she got up and walked over to the couch. She gently shook Beth, who immediately woke up and then sat up, tightly hugging her stuffed moose. She tried to hide her face, but Lisbon knew she was crying, and she knew she'd had a nightmare.

Beth eventually looked up at the agent sitting next to her before suddenly dropping her moose and hugging Lisbon. Lisbon was initially surprised, but then put her arms around the girl and rocked back and forth slightly.

Jane watched the whole thing. He could tell that Lisbon wanted to cry as well, but wouldn't let herself.

Van Pelt walked back into the bull pen, looking completely refreshed. Her smile faltered when she noticed Beth crying and her boss comforting the girl. "Um…" Van Pelt said, clearly feeling awkward. She turned to Jane. "I'll go pick up pancake mix?"

"Sounds good!" Jane said with a grin. Van Pelt turned around and got back into the elevator.

Beth sniffed a couple of times and then wiped her face off. She took deep breaths, and then she seemed calmed down. Lisbon let go of her. "Are you OK?" she asked.

"Yeah," Beth said shakily, "It was just a nightmare."

"Hey, Beth," Jane looked to his left, to his right, and then said quietly to the girl, "I heard that there's milk in the fridge, and that there's Captain Crunch in the kitchen!"

Beth smiled and jumped off the couch and took off toward the kitchen.

Jane leaned back in Cho's chair. "How long is it going to take for all that paperwork between her, the teacher, and the social worker going to take?"

"It's going to have to go to court. A couple of days, probably. But that teacher's been thinking about this possibility for a while, so maybe less," Lisbon said with a shrug.

"Why didn't Van Pelt just call up one of the relatives?" Jane asked, furrowing his brow.

"She tried. Jim Boris was an only child and his parent's died three years ago. Audrey's family stopped talking to Jim. They had a big fall out after her funeral. They all hung up when Van Pelt mentioned him," Lisbon said sadly.

Jane sighed and put his hands behind his head.

"Do I have to eat by myself?" Beth called out from the kitchen. Jane grinned before getting up and heading towards the kitchen.

* * *

Hate it? Like it? Love it? Tell me which and why! Review!

Really, I want to know what you think!

Have a better day than I did! :D


	6. Chapter 6

James and Jack had come back to the office at lunch time, once again with food. They were pleased to see that everyone was actually there and that the Applebee's Car Side To Go wouldn't get cold.

Beth picked out all the cheese sticks. Rigsby had tried to trade her for a couple of them, but she had only smiled and continued eating. Her reaction caused several people at the table to snicker.

Miss Amor had come by just after lunch to pick up paperwork and talk to Beth, who was pleased as punch with the way things looked.

At around 5, Lisbon got orders to head out.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Beth," Jane volunteered. Lisbon gave him a blank stare. Jane got up, "Alright, if you trust James and Jack to watch her…"

Lisbon looked over at her brothers who had bought nerf guns while they got lunch. They were each behind a desk, trying to hit the other.

"No, that's alright. You go ahead and stay here. We'll be back in a bit." Lisbon headed out with Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt.

"Hey!" Jane called out, "Jim! Jack! What do you say to making dinner?"

James and Jack poked their heads over the desks they were hiding behind. "I dunno," James replied. "What say you, Jack?"

"I say we go for it!" Jack threw his hand with the nerf gun up into the air and stood up.

James took the opportunity to nail him in the gut with a volley of nerf bullets. "Ha ha, evil fiend! You've been defeated! Victory is mine!"

Jack took a shot and got his brother between the eyes. "Ohh… headshot. That's got to hurt."

"You're already dead, so it doesn't count!" James pouted.

"Alright, Patrick!" Jack said, putting down his toy, "What are we going to make?"

Jane turned to the couch to ask Beth, but she'd decided to take another nap and was fast asleep. "Alright then… Spaghetti. That's always a safe bet."

"Awesome!" James said excitedly, "Jonathon Lisbon, let's get ourselves to the grocery store!"

"Right away, James Lisbon!" Jack met his brother at the doorway. They waved to Jane and promised to be back in thirty minutes.

James suddenly fell to the ground. "Johnny!" he shouted as the elevator doors began closing with his brother inside, "I'm telling Queen Resa on you!" He got up and put his hand in the door just before it closed. The doors opened and admitted him.

Jane wandered around for the next half hour until James and Jack returned with bags of food. All three headed to the kitchen and began working. Jane was surprised that James and Jack knew how to cook. James and Jack were likewise surprised that Jane had an idea of what he was doing.

"So," Jane said, breaking the silence, "You're still in college?"

"Yuppers!" said Jack.

"We had to wait a few years to come up with the money." James shuddered. "I don't miss bartending at all."

"Bartending?" Jane asked.

"Bartending," James confirmed, "for four miserable years before we had enough money to get through college."

"What college are you attending?"

"Argosy University!"

"Surely four years of bartending wouldn't cover all that time? Didn't you say you're becoming a vet and doctor?" Jane raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm going to be a doctor," James said.

"And I'm going to be a vet, yes. But we only bartended after we turned 21. We kind of got sick of catering," Jack added.

"How long were you catering?" Jane asked, turning back to cut up bread.

"Since we were old enough to work. Sophomore year of high school," James said as if it weren't a big deal.

Jane turned away from the bread again. "That would make you 15 or 16. And I bet you worked from the time you got out of school to nine or ten."

"That we did," Jack confirmed. "Then we got home and did our homework. It was really quite challenging. Grandma would always come in and turn all our lights off at midnight."

Jane didn't say anything. He knew Jack would be adding something in 3… 2…

"Yup. Then we'd wait half an hour to make sure she was asleep. After that, we'd get Teresa and head downstairs to Tom's room, where we'd finish our homework."

"And our teachers would wonder why we were always falling asleep in class!" James snorted.

"Who's Tom?" Jane asked.

"Teresa hasn't said anything to you about Tom?" Jack sounded shocked.

"No… I didn't know anything about you two before you came here, either," Jane said slowly.

"Tom was our older brother. He was three years younger than Teresa, and four years older than us," James explained, expecting a light bulb to go off in Jane's head.

Jane only spoke one word, "Was?"

"Was," Jack repeated. He turned around to the pot of water and threw in the spaghetti.

"Anyway, Tom skipped college and went right to working full time. Teresa went to college two years after graduating high school. Grandma and Grandpa helped her out through that. She still worked and lived at home, though," James said.

Jack shuddered. "Working as a receptionist for a law firm? I would've preferred working as a garbage man."

"She probably would have, too," James chuckled. Jane looked at him oddly. "Terry _hates_ lawyers! Working with them every day, having them be her boss, drove her up the wall. But it paid pretty well."

"She doesn't act like she hates lawyers now…" Jane said.

"She does. She just hides it really well," James answered.

"So basically, all the Lisbon children were working since they were old enough?" Jane asked.

"Basically," James confirmed.

"Teresa's been working longer than that. She was babysitting constantly until she got a regular job," Jack pointed out to his brother.

"Oh yeah… Tom did too. He started mowing lawns when he was eleven," James added thoughtfully.

"Why?" Jane didn't bother trying to hide how curious he was anymore.

"Why?" James laughed, but it was sour sounding, "Because we had to pay for everything, _everything_ ourselves! Teresa and Tom went to public high school, but they nearly killed themselves to get us into a private one. So that was four years of private high school tuition for two, and then college for three out of four of us!"

"Your parents didn't help?" Jane knew that they'd both died, but he figured they would have left their children money.

"Nope. When we got control of the accounts, we discovered that they might as well have been empty," Jack said.

"That money was probably wasted on alcohol," James tacked on.

"And Grandma and Grandpa were already thin on money, so they could only help us so much," Jack finished.

Jane had known that Lisbon's childhood hadn't been perfect, but he hadn't imagined it like this.

The elevator doors dinged and opened, revealing a tired CBI team.

"Look," James whispered to Jane, "Don't let Teresa know we told you all this stuff. She's obviously worked hard to keep it quiet. Although I will admit that I find it funny that you all put your lives in each other's hands every day and don't know any deeper than surface things."

Jane shrugged and continued working on dinner with the Lisbon twins. Rigsby popped his head into the kitchen and looked happy. "Do I smell garlic bread?"

"Yes you do, Wayne!" Jack exclaimed.

Rigsby smiled and pulled his head out of the kitchen and went to his desk.

"Yes!" James said, giving his brother a high five, "We got on his good side!"

Jane looked at them questioningly.

"We made Grace giggle yesterday. I know Wayne's a nice guy most of the time, but he's a lot bigger than us, and we wanted to make sure that we got on his good side," Jack explained.

"And we figure he's like a dog, you know? Once you befriend them, they're your friends for life," James added playfully.

Jane started laughing and pulled the garlic bread out of the oven. He was right when he guessed James and Jack knew the team better than the team thought.

Jane's laughter only increased when he looked into the bull pen and saw that Beth was awake and asking Rigsby every question about his desk and outfit that could possibly be asked. He was surprised at how well Rigsby took it though.

Jack started draining the noodles and James called everyone to the kitchen. Rigsby was, once again, the first one in. Lisbon came in after him and smacked James without warning.

"Ouch! What did I do this time? Please, enlighten me, Queen Resa!" James requested as he rubbed the back of the head. In response, Lisbon handed him a stack of plates and Jack a handful of silverware.

"Oh… that's right. Out here in not-college land people can afford these wonderful devices!" Jack said in awe as he examined a fork.

"Jack!" James exclaimed, "Jack! They have _plates_!"

"No way!" Jack shouted. He threw the plastic forks, knives, and spoons onto the table to admire the plain paper plates with his twin.

Lisbon hit them upside the head again and they dropped their ruse and set up places at the tables for everyone.

Jane set the food on the table. Beth once again requested that they pray, Jane left the room again, and Jack led.

* * *

Hi... it's been a while. I apologize. But, alas! F.I.N.A.L.S. have come! I shall soon be writing 24/7 HOORAH!!!!

I know I'm going to get questions about this, so I expplain now. Jim is a nick name for James. Jack is a nick name for John, which is a nick name for Jonathon. Yes, I know. I just make things confusing.

Please review and let me know what you think! Pweeeease? Pwetty pwease? Wiv a chewwy on top? I'll send you an e-Jane... or e-whoever. One time offer, folks. :D

Have a super, fantastic and awesome day!


	7. Chapter 7

My excuse for lack of update: I was abducted by aliens.

* * *

Dinner was… interesting. James and Jack had decided that their sister was being too much of a bore and started flinging green beans at her.

Lisbon let it go the first couple of times, then declared, "I have had enough of this!" and walked around behind her brothers, grabbed the spare spaghetti sauce from the counter, and poured generous amounts on both of them before returning to her seat, acting as if nothing had happened.

James sighed and turned to his brother, "Johnny, are we going to take this?"

Jack's face cracked into a smile. He and his brother rose out of their seats, sauce still dripping down from their heads, and started walking towards their sister.

Lisbon looked up at the impending doom of her outfit approaching her. "James Charles, Jonathon Michael, if you aren't sitting down in ten seconds…" she didn't get to finish her threat, seeing as she was forced to get up and dodge Jack jumping at her.

Beth squealed with joy. She was getting dinner and a show. Van Pelt was pursing her lips, trying to not laugh or smile. Rigsby's eyes showed that he was very entertained, but like Van Pelt restrained himself from breaking down into laughter. Cho was keeping up his deadpan face, but only just. Jane laughed freely with Beth.

In the end, James and Jack succeeded in covering Lisbon's jacket with red sauce, but she'd managed to keep her trousers and shirt clean. You could even say that she was simply the battle-scarred winner. She'd handcuffed Jack to the fridge, leaving only James to deal with. She'd pick-pocketed Van Pelt and taken her pair of handcuffs, then surprised James with them. He wound up stuck on the oven. Lisbon then put her jacket on the back of her chair and continued eating as if nothing had happened.

"Boss," Rigsby said, still trying hard not to laugh, "You have a bit of something in your hair…"

Lisbon ran her hand through her pony tail and it came back covered in red sauce. She took out her ponytail and somehow managed to rearrange her hair into a bun, and continued eating.

Minelli looked into the kitchen on his way out. He saw the Lisbon twins cuffed to the fridge and oven, but decided he'd rather not know and left.

After ten minutes, Lisbon let her brothers go with them promising they wouldn't attack her again, and they returned to their seats and finished eating before heading to the bathroom to see what sauce they could get off themselves.

Soon after dinner, the Lisbons all left to go home and shower, leaving everyone else at the office to entertain Beth.

"Do you have any games?" Beth asked, tugging on Jane's jacket.

"We have cards," Jane replied, "but we've failed to collect any board games," he added apologetically.

"That's ok," Beth said, not skipping a beat. "Teach me a game!"

Jane smiled and looked around at his coworkers. He raised his hand and suggested, "I say we play Spoons."

Van Pelt and Rigsby immediately agreed, leaving Cho no choice. Jane explained the game to Beth while Van Pelt was dealing. Beth turned out to be very good at the game, keeping her cards hidden and being very sneaky when grabbing a spoon. Van Pelt was decent, and Cho was pretty good. Rigsby was horrible at it. He rarely stayed in for more than one round.

Over the course of an hour, the five people had played spoons, go fish, and even 52 pick-up a few times. Beth thought everyone's reactions were funny. She was forbidden from dealing again.

Jane looked at the little girl next to him. Her eyes were drooping ever so slightly and she tried to hide her yawn. "I think that it's time for bed."

"No it's not!" Beth argued, "I'm not tired!"

"Alright," Jane said reasonably, "How about this; we'll take a fifteen minute nap, and then we can play some more."

Beth agreed and went over to the couch. She was asleep the moment her head hit her pillow.

Van Pelt's cell phone rang from her desk. She got up so quickly to answer it that her chair would've fallen and waken Beth if Rigsby hadn't caught it. She snatched her phone up and left the bull pen before answering it.

When she came back a few minutes later Jane, Cho, and Rigsby were playing poker. Jane looked up and saw mixed emotions playing all over the junior agent. "Van Pelt?"

"Miss Amor just called. The case went through, already. She said she can come get Beth tomorrow," Van Pelt sounded happy, but surprised.

Everyone looked at the sleeping 8 year old on the couch. Whether they admitted it or not, they were going to miss her. Van Pelt walked over to the couch and sat down, flipping through a different magazine than the previous night.

Cho started the poker back up, and Jane won the pot a few seconds later.

"Damn," Rigsby cursed under his breath, throwing his cards down. He'd just lost his lunch money for the rest of the week. That was going to mess with his budget planning.

Cho placed his cards on the table and went to his desk. He looked over at the couch and shook his head, noticing that Van Pelt had already fallen asleep.

Rigsby went over to his own desk and opened Jim Boris's file again, deciding to finish it before going to sleep.

Jane went back into the kitchen to make some tea. He didn't want to even attempt sleep tonight, so why not have some caffeine? He was surprised to see Lisbon cleaning up the puddles of red that spread all over the kitchen.

"Hey, Jane," she said from the floor.

"When did you get back here?" Jane asked, setting his water to boil and then grabbing some paper towels to help clean.

"Only about five minutes ago. I saw Van Pelt and Beth sleeping and figured everyone else was keeping quiet. So I just came in here to clean up before Minelli sees the damage," she explained with a weak smile. Jane could see that she was tired. She hadn't slept well at all the previous night, and she had to keep her brothers in line all day.

"Why don't you go ahead to sleep? I'll finish up in here," offered Jane.

"No," Lisbon said, pausing in her cleaning and leaning back on her heels, "I won't be able to, anyway. Might as well keep busy."

"Miss Amor called. Beth's leaving tomorrow."

Lisbon nodded. "Good. Miss Amor will be able to take better care of her than us." She leaned forward again and continued wiping up sauce.

"I thought we'd been doing a decent job," Jane said defensively as he dropped to his knees to clean up the floor.

"Well, yeah," admitted Lisbon, "we've kept her entertained, but if she stays too much longer she'll get too attached to us. That is definitely not what we want."

"I suppose not."

They fell into silence until a thump from the bull pen caught their attention. Lisbon looked across the hallway and witnessed Beth starting to kick in her sleep. She pushed herself off the floor and went to wake the girl up from her nightmare. Jane sighed and leaned back onto his heels and rubbed a hand over his face. He was definitely tired, but he feared falling into a nightmare, like Beth. Only he would have no one to wake him up from it.

* * *

Confession: I will not be writing 24/7 until June. I am apparently going on vacation... I'll try to update... and I probably will, just a heads up.

Leave a REVIEW and let me know what you THINK! Is this good? Am I stupid for bringing in some random little kid? Am I getting the characters alright? Are James and Jack obnoxious? Is Jane obnoxious enough? Tell me!! I want to know what you like and what you don't like about the story! I don't know what to bribe you all with... but leave a review and I'll likely think of something! :D


	8. Chapter 8

Despite her wanting to stay awake, sleep took over Lisbon when she lay down after calming Beth and making sure she went back to sleep. Lisbon had only meant to rest her back, but she'd closed her eyes and forgotten to open them again.

Jane chuckled as he watched Lisbon fight to keep her eyes open before she lost the battle. He returned to the kitchen to finish up the cleaning. All that was left to do now was wipe off the oven and fridge door. And so he got to work, humming to himself.

* * *

_Teresa watched as a belt flew through the air and collided with her little brother's back. James whimpered and covered the back of his neck. Teresa looked at the counter and sink. There was evidence left out. He was drunk again. She saw him raise the belt again, and ran across the kitchen and flung herself on top of her twin brothers._

_She felt the pain on her back. Once, twice, again and again. She lost count. _

_After what seemed like hours, Teresa stopped receiving new stings of pain, and a belt clattered to the ground. She stayed crouched over her brothers for a few minutes to be safe, and then rushed them to the basement and locked the door behind her. She handed the twins off to Tom, made it to the back room and passed out._

Lisbon's eyes flew open. She was surrounded by darkness, and found herself completely terrified. How long had she been passed out? Her back still stung, though not as bad as she expected. Now her job was to get up and join Tom in calming their little brothers down. She got up and felt her way towards the door and was surprised to find it open. Why were the lights off? Surely the boys hadn't gone upstairs?

Lisbon spun around several times before noticing a light down the hall. ...Down the hall? The basement didn't have a hallway... She cautiously headed towards it and poked her head through the door.

"Good morning, Agent Lisbon!" said a cheery voice from the table.

Lisbon blinked several times and looked at the consultant.

"You are awake, aren't you?" Jane asked.

"...Yeah, yeah," Lisbon said, shaking her head and putting a palm to her forehead, "I'm up."

Jane got up and walked towards the agent. He grabbed her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes. "You're up, but you're not awake," he declared. "Tell me where you are."

Lisbon was coming slowly back to reality. "At the office... in the kitchen," she replied.

"What day is it?"

Lisbon stopped eye contact with the consultant briefly to look at the time displayed on the microwave. 2:30 AM. "It's Thursday."

Jane grinned and returned to his seat. "Welcome back to the real world! You woke up. Your nightmare is over."

Lisbon fell into a chair at the table across from Jane and dropped her head into her hands. She pulled a hand through her hair. It was short, just at her shoulders. She wasn't thirteen. She was a full grown CBI agent spending the night at the office for a little girl. James and Jack were at her apartment, not in a basement. A sigh of relief rushed out of her.

"What was it this time?" Jane asked, taking a sip of tea.

Lisbon responded by glaring at Jane. He noticed the bags under her eyes were darker than they had been when she fell asleep. "How long was I sleeping?" she asked, pushing herself up.

"I don't know if you could call it sleeping." Jane replaced his teacup onto it's saucer before continuing. "For the past hour and a half all you've been doing is talking, kicking, and thrashing."

Lisbon's eyes widened. "What was I saying?" She was honestly surprised. She thought she'd stopped talking in her sleep when she was 16.

Jane didn't say anything for a moment. Then he picked up his saucer and cup and headed towards the sink. "Not anything that made sense," he lied. Well, it wasn't a complete lie. It wouldn't have made any sense to anyone else on the team. They hadn't made dinner with the Lisbon twins.

Silence fell over the kitchen. Jane was studying Lisbon for at least three minutes before she noticed. "What?" she said irritably.

Jane looked at her a good thirty seconds more before responding. "How long ago did Tom die?"

Lisbon snapped into a rigid position and fixed her suddenly flaming eyes on Jane.

"How old were you when your mother got hit by a drunk driver?"

"Good night, Jane!" Lisbon snapped furiously before getting up and leaving the kitchen.

Jane sighed and sat back down at the table. She'd be waking up again. 45 minutes later, she proved him right. He saw he shoot up in her sleeping bag once again, wiping her face off with the back of her hand. He flipped his head back to look at the clock. It was 4:30. Jane watched Lisbon slowly fall back into her sleeping bag and decided to let her try sleeping once more before repeating the previous morning's activities.

Sure enough, Lisbon popped up once more at 5:15. He offered to drop her off at her apartment, and to his surprise, she agreed and got up.

* * *

I know! It's really short! I'm sorry! :(

Please tell me what you thought of the chapter, anyway! It will be greatly appreciated! I'll smile, and respond to your review, I promise!!! :D


	9. Chapter 9

James and Jack skipped into the bull pen two hours earlier than they had the past couple of days.

"We had to make sure we didn't miss this one's departure!" James said, messing up Beth's hair.

"Jim!" Van Pelt said exasperatedly, "I just finished braiding her hair!"

"Whoops…" James said before slowly side stepping back out of the bull pen under Van Pelt's intense glare.

Van Pelt sighed and called Beth over to redo her hair. She'd been fretting all morning to make sure the girl looked perfect for her new guardian.

Jack chuckled and left to join James in the kitchen.

James had pulled several pictures out of his backpack as well as a  
small binder. Jack produced some paper, scissors, and glue out of his bag.

Jane looked at the pictures among the mess that was quickly spreading across the table. He picked up one that caught his eye in particular. He'd taken it last night while playing cards. Cho and Beth each had a hand on the last spoon at the table and were looking at each other intently. It was really quite comical; if they sold it, they'd be able to make a decent profit. Jane then looked more closely at the other objects on the table. "So this is why you asked me to get a picture of Cho for you," Jane chortled.

"Well, yeah," James admitted, "The only pictures we were able to get of him were... disappointing."

"We couldn't have Beth only remembering Cho as the man who never smiled!" Jack added. "You've done well, Patrick, very well!"

Jane studied the other pictures that were soon to be thrown into a scrap book that he knew would be with Beth wherever she went. There was a picture of Van Pelt combing through Beth's hair, and then another one of her and Beth asleep on the couch. Jane held the picture up to James. "You are aware that Van Pelt is going to be displeased, right?"

James' lips twitched upward. "I am aware. But that was what you saw every other time you looked at that couch."

Jane chuckled and put the picture down and picked up one with Rigsby in it. It was Beth at his desk, asking him question after question. He traded that picture for one of Lisbon waking Beth up. There was even one of Lisbon behind Beth (who was obviously shrieking with laughter), trying to figure out how to escape her sauce-covered brothers that were creeping in from the sides of the picture.

"We had Cho get that one," Jack said proudly.

Then Jane saw one of his pictures. Beth was chatting away at the CBI kitchen table, and he had his chin in his hand, looking very interested. There was another one where Jane was sitting at the table, drinking his tea and looking at a news paper. Beth was behind him making a face. "When did you take these?"

"That one," James pointed to the one of Beth babbling to Jane, "Teresa took yesterday for us. And that one," James turned his finger at the one of Beth making the face, "Jack got yesterday, as well."

"I didn't notice," Jane admitted.

The twins' jaws dropped. "James..."

"Jack..."

"WE DID SOMETHING WITHOUT JANE NOTICING!" Jack and James screamed at the same time. James threw his hands up in the air and spun his way to the bull pen to share the news of victory and brag even more.

"It's alright, Jane," Jack said comfortingly, patting Jane's shoulder, "even though you're slipping, we still love and accept you."

"What is James shouting about?" Lisbon asked. She stood with her hands on her hips in the kitchen doorway.

"Terry!" Jack exclaimed, abandoning Jane, "Terry! Look! Look!"

Jack shoved the picture in Lisbon's face. She snatched it out of his hands and looked at it. She smiled, then handed it back. "So?"

"So? Is that all you have to say? We took that picture, and Patrick _didn't notice_!"

Lisbon had a similar reaction to her brothers and let her jaw drop. "Jane, you're slipping!"

Jane smiled and shook his head. "Honestly, I don't see why this is such a surprise. There are times when I miss things."

"Whatever, Patrick," Jack said, holding out three fingers in a W, and then turned his hand to make the fingers an E, "Whatever. We know that you're just trying to protect yourself."

Jane looked into the bull pen to see Rigsby wringing James' hand. He shook his head again.

"Anyway," Lisbon interrupted the euphoria, "Jack, come on, let's go pick up lunch."

"Alright, alright," Jack put his hands up in surrender. "Hey! James!"

"What?" James yelled from the bull pen.

"Jack, no..." Lisbon corrected.

"Never mind!" Jack hollered. He then spoke in his normal voice to his sister, "Jim isn't coming?"

"No. James is not coming. He has to stay here and clean up the lovely mess you've managed to make in your first 15 minutes of being here," Lisbon responded, then twitched her finger, telling Jack to follow her.

"How about a picnic?" Jane suddenly suggested.

Jack immediately perked up. "Picnic?"

"Jane..." Lisbon said suspiciously.

"Oh, come on!" Jane said good naturally and shrugged his shoulders, "It's Beth's last day here, why not go to the park and have a picnic? What little girl doesn't love one?"

Lisbon still didn't look convinced when Beth galloped into the room. "What's going on?" the little girl asked, bouncing on her heels. Jack leaned against the table and was trying to pile the scrap booking material behind him in hopes that the recipient wouldn't see.

"Beth, what would you say to going on a picnic for lunch?" Jane asked, though he was looking at Lisbon.

Beth gasped with delight. "Is that what we're doing? Are we going on a picnic?"

Jane looked at Lisbon pointedly and smiled. "Yes, we're going on a picnic," Lisbon sighed, resigning herself to the fact.

Beth looked around the kitchen as if expecting to see a basket. "Do you want to go and help pick out the food?" Jane's smile was getting wider. Beth nodded. "Well then, so be it! Lisbon?"

Lisbon let herself smile. "Come on!"

Beth clapped her hands a few times before skipping up next to Lisbon and grabbing her hand.

Jack waited until his sister was a couple of yards ahead before turning to Jane, "Come on, man! This is going to be the best shopping trip you've ever been on!"

Jane smiled and caught up with Jack and they got into the elevator. The doors closed right after Jane's heels went through. Jane and Jack had their backs to Lisbon, but they could feel her glare on the back of their heads.

* * *

Um... It's still before June, technically!

Here's the deal, I headed out for vacation, got to where I was staying, got on the internet, and it didn't work. Well, F! Now I have to use my phone. So I get on my super slow phone for you all, and then it doesn't load the documents I had uploaded to update. It was little rune-ish pictures that I couldn't click on. So I couldn't update. -sigh- I am very sorry! I'll update shortly, I promise!

Pwease tell me what you think? Pretty please with an animal cracker on top?


	10. Chapter 10

Jack called dibs on sitting in the back with Beth, leaving Jane to sit in the front with Lisbon.

"Jane," Lisbon said, putting the key in the ignition and turning it, "if you try to pull anything, I will bring you serious physical pain."

"Lisbon!" Jane replied, acting shocked, "Would I ever do such a thing to you in public?"

"Yes." Lisbon pulled out of her parking spot and headed off in the direction of the grocery store. Jane smiled and looked out the window.

The ride to the store was quite short and the quartet got out of the car and went in. Beth insisted on carrying the basket. They all stayed together to get the basic things: bread, jelly, peanut butter, chips, and soda pop.

"Jack!" Beth said loudly, pulling on the man's sleeve, "Let's go pick out desserts!"

"Alright, my Lady! Follow me!" Jack demanded, and ran off with Beth in the direction of the aisles packed with junk food.

Jane chuckled at Jack as he nearly ran over a few people on the way. "I'm going to go ahead and pick out a few things myself. I'll find you in a few minutes," he said before strolling off with his hands in his pockets.

Lisbon stayed in the dairy section, figuring she'd be easy to find if someone needed to. She looked at the yogurts, hoping to find one that would look unappealing to Rigsby. She knew it was mission impossible, but either way, their stock was low. Yogurt was a must. It was something everyone would eat, and it was something good for them.

She grabbed an abandoned basket and threw some of the yogurts in before moving on to pick a package of string cheese. Lisbon wouldn't ever admit it, but she found it very amusing to watch people eat string cheese. They just looked so childlike.

Lisbon was comparing the labels on two packages when a woman came up next to her. "Excuse me…"

Lisbon looked up and stepped aside, thinking the woman wanted to get at the cream cheese she was standing in front of.

"Teresa?" the woman asked. Lisbon looked at her oddly. "Teresa Lisbon! Oh my goodness! It's you! I haven't seen you since graduation!"

Thoughts were running through Lisbon's head; she could not remember this woman to save her life. Graduation? That had to mean grade school or high school. She remembered the faces at her college commencement. Lisbon hadn't gone to her 8th grade graduation, so this woman had to be from high school.

"It's me! Charlotte! Charlotte Robins!" the woman exclaimed.

All of a sudden thoughts flooded into Lisbon's mind. She remembered. Charlotte Robins had been the only other person from her small private grade school to attend a large public high school. Oh, how she'd hated it. She had wanted to leave everything about grade school behind her; especially 7th and 8th grade. She had so been looking forward to going somewhere where no one knew about her past years. But no, Charlotte had run up to her on the first day of a new school, crying out about how fun it would be.

Lisbon smiled anyway. "Charlotte! How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been just fine! Got married 10 years ago, actually. Remember Mark Baker?"

"Vaguely," Lisbon admitted.

"He caught me." Charlotte smiled. "We've got three kids. They're not here though. Angie is hanging out with her friend all day today and then going to her first sleepover, and Ryan and Andrew are at their auntie's. Anyway, how have you been?" Something along the lines of concern were suddenly on the woman's face. Lisbon hated it.

She was glad her jacket covered her gun and badge. If she had only remembered one thing about Charlotte Robins, it was that she hadn't been approving of Lisbon's desire to be a police officer after the car crash.

Eventually she responded, "I've been pretty good."

"Are you still working all the time? Goodness, I remember how some people thought you could bilocate!"

Lisbon attempted another smile, but it was completely fake. "I work as much as I have to."

"Well what else have you done? I'm sure Teresa Lisbon has been a very busy bee!" The woman smiled and looked extremely interested. It was then that Lisbon remembered Charlotte had loved to gossip. Lisbon hadn't a doubt in her mind that several other high school 'friends' would soon be aware of everything she had done since graduation tonight. Charlotte would make sure of that.

"Uh, I haven't been doing too much of anything. Just working and relaxing when I can." Lisbon hoped that Charlotte wouldn't ask what she was working as now. It would only make it more awkward. The woman would start fussing about how dangerous it was and all those kinds of things.

Just as Charlotte opened her mouth to ask the dreaded question, Jane walked down the aisle. "Jack and Beth aren't back yet?" he asked, putting a few things into Lisbon's basket.

"Juice boxes, Jane? Really?" Lisbon asked.

"Yes, juice boxes. When was the last time you had one?" Jane smiled and turned towards Charlotte. He stuck out his hand. "Patrick Jane."

Charlotte took his hand and caught a glimpse of the golden band on Jane's left hand. "Charlotte Baker," she said slowly.

Jane noticed her looking at his left hand. He put it in his pocket. "I work with Theresa."

"Ohhh," Charlotte said, but still didn't look convinced. She started trying to get a look at Lisbon's left hand, but she kept it in her own jacket pocket, keeping the fabric pulled over the fact that there were signs of her being in law enforcement underneath it.

"Old friends?" Jane asked.

Lisbon looked at him. He knew. Of course he knew. He was Jane, and he was playing stupid. He could probably tell that Charlotte would start screeching that he was psychic if he didn't. "Yes," Lisbon played along, "Charlotte and I went to the same grade school and high school."

Charlotte suddenly blurted a question that had she'd obviously wanted to ask for a while. "How are your brothers? Thomas, James, and Jonathon, right?"

Lisbon's false smile faltered. "They're all fine," she lied.

"Oh, good!"

Lisbon and Jane suddenly turned their heads in the direction of quick, loud foot falls coming towards them. Beth ran down the aisle at Lisbon full force and grabbed her and wouldn't let go for anything. The force of the little girl was such that Lisbon leaned forward quite a bit with an unintentional _oof_. Jane grabbed the basket full of groceries from Lisbon's hands before it hit Beth in the head.

Lisbon noticed that her clothes started to feel wet where Beth's head was. She somehow managed to get down at eye level with the girl. "Beth, what's wrong?"

Beth's teary eyes were darting around every direction. Her breathing was extremely quick.

"There you are!" said a man's voice down the aisle. Beth squeaked and retreated behind Lisbon.

Jane stepped next to Lisbon. They both looked at the man coming towards them. He wore jeans that were torn at the knees, a shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, a ball cap, and beaten down shoes.

"Can I help you, sir?" Lisbon asked, falling into her work persona.

"Yeah, you can. I was just trying to say hello to little Boris, there," the man said, pointing behind Lisbon.

Jane could smell the cigarette smoke and alcohol on the man. And little Boris? This man couldn't care less about Beth. He was after information. This man was a drinking buddy of Jim Boris.

"I don't think she wants to say hello to you," Lisbon replied.

"Sure she does! Don't you remember me?" the man slurred a couple of times. He was drunk right now, that was for sure.

It was obvious that Beth did remember him clearly. She was trying to make herself as small as possible and was holding onto the back of Lisbon's trousers for dear life.

"Sir," Lisbon said, "she doesn't want to talk to you. Please move along."

"I'd like to hear that from her, if you don't mind," the man quipped.

Jane continued playing dumb. "How do you know her?"

"Her dad and I are pretty good friends," the man admitted.

"Mr. Boris is in prison," Jane stated. He watched as the man sighed, releasing more of the alcohol on his breath into the air.

Lisbon was fighting to keep her face emotionless. She knew just as well as Jane what this man was to the Boris family. "Sir, I'm going to ask you again to please move along," Lisbon demanded.

"What are you going to do if I don't, eh?" the man challenged.

Screw the fact that Charlotte was still watching. Lisbon pulled her badge off her belt and held it out for the man to see. "I could arrest you, if you'd like." She heard Charlotte gasp from the side, but didn't care.

The man looked at the badge closely as if he thought it wasn't real.

"Now would you like to move along on your own will or be forced to?" Lisbon maintained a calm voice. It wouldn't be easy to make him move without more of a scene than there currently was. He was twice her size and powered by alcohol.

Thankfully, the man walked off, muttering the entire time. Lisbon turned around and went back down to eye level with Beth. "He's gone."

Beth flung her arms around Lisbon's neck and refused to let go.

Jack came around the corner. He saw Lisbon standing and holding the 8 year old and sighed with relief.

"Teresa! I'm so sorry!" he gasped. He'd obviously been running around trying to find the girl. "We were looking at all the candies. I went to grab one she couldn't reach and when I turned back she was gone!"

"It's alright," Lisbon said, "I'll explain in the car. Do we have everything we need?"

"Yeah," Jack replied, holding up the basket he and Beth had been going around with.

"Fantastic. Let's get moving, then," Lisbon ordered. She turned back to Charlotte. The woman had let her jaw fall and hadn't picked it back up. "I'd shake your hand to say good-bye, but that'd be difficult, currently," Lisbon admitted, looking sideways at Beth, who was still refusing to be put down.

Charlotte shook her head and came back to reality. "You're a cop? Oh, Teresa, why?"

"You know why," Lisbon said indifferently. "Well, it was nice to see you," another lie, "but I've got to go now. Maybe I'll see you around some other time!" Lisbon gave one last fake smile and headed off with Jack and Jane to check out.

"Grade school and high school?" Jane asked while placing things onto the small conveyer belt.

"Unfortunately," Lisbon said heavily, trying to rearrange Beth somehow so that she could breathe better.

"I'll trade you," Jane offered, holding out a gallon of milk.

Lisbon gave a real smile. Beth was willingly given to Jane and the group continued out to the car.

"Good God!" Jack said as he got into the car, "I thought we'd seen the last of that nosy woman when you graduated!"

"I thought so too," Lisbon sighed, holding her head up with one hand and driving with the other. "Charlotte liked to bring us dinners, and then stay with us to eat them," Lisbon explained to Jane, "and that's only part of it. Too nosy for her own good. I'm surprised she even got married."

"She and her husband aren't happy," Jane declared, "She was far too interested in me. If she still cared for her husband as she should, she would have tried to ignore me."

"Now that doesn't surprise me," Lisbon said sourly. She looked in her rearview mirror to check on Beth. She'd fallen asleep. "Oh, good! We aren't going on that picnic until she wakes up on her own."

"Why?" Jack inquired.

"Because she's not going to want to leave the park for anything! I don't want her to be _completely_ exhausted when Miss Amor picks her up!"

"Fine," Jack admitted defeat. "Alright, now who was that guy?"

"Beth's father's drinking buddy," Lisbon said with venom. The car sped up slightly.

Jack gagged. "No wonder she ran."

Jane decided it was best not to ask further.

Jack suddenly gasped. "We don't have a basket!"

Lisbon groaned. Now they had to turn around and go back to get one.

"If you wouldn't mind making a detour, I've got one at my house," Jane offered. Lisbon grudgingly agreed and followed Jane's directions until they pulled up in his driveway.

* * *

Yes, part of next chapter takes place in Jane's house. Yay!

Can you all do me a humongous favor? ...Humongous? Humongus? ... whatever.

Do me a big favor. Click the green rectangular looking thing below this text. Somethings going to pop up. It is not an add! Do not close out! Wait for it to finish loading, then type out what you thought of this chapter. Then hit send. Everytime you go through this process an autor who has sat in front of their computer all day refreshing their e-mail page squeals with delight and smiles. Some of them, like me, even reply to these things known as reviews! Please, help us who have no life. Review.


	11. Chapter 11

Jack pulled Beth out of her seat and carried her into Jane's house. She woke up on her own will and was put down.

"I'm not exactly sure where it is," Jane admitted, "so just give me a couple of minutes." He went into his kitchen and started looking through things. Lisbon joined him in the kitchen and began going through things as well with his permission.

Beth started playing hide and seek with Jack. She refused to let the round end when he found her and would run until he tagged her.

Jane exhaled and looked around his kitchen. He'd failed to find the basket. "I know I have one, I remember it," he closed his eyes and retreated into his own mind, trying to remember where it was. His eyes popped open and he smiled. "The basement! She put it in the basement!" He started off towards the basement door.

Lisbon felt a bit awkward. He'd referred to his wife. He never did that. Why would he now? None the less, she followed him down the carpeted steps into the nicely done basement and over to a wall made of well organized shelves.

Jane started looking at the shelves. Lisbon noticed that they were covered with dust. "No… winter clothes… summer clothes… sewing… Ah!" he exclaimed, pulling a picnic basket off a shelf, "Here it is!"

Thumps sounded above them and Jane stiffened as he looked at his ceiling. The thumps got a little quieter each time they sounded. Jane handed the basket to Lisbon and took off, back up the steps and out of the basement. Lisbon again followed him and discovered what induced his sudden change of behavior. The stairs leading upstairs were over the basement stairs. Beth and Jack weren't in the front room. They'd gone up the staircase.

Jane flew up the stairs, Lisbon right behind him, and looked straight down the hall. Beth was standing in an open doorway looking at a red smiley face, and Jack was behind her.

Jane walked up in front of them and shut the door with more force than needed. "The upstairs is off limits," he said, attempting a smile.

Beth was about to ask what the smiley was, but Jack turned her around and headed downstairs.

Jane rubbed a hand over his face and started back down the hall.

"Jane, I'm sorry," Lisbon said with emotion.

"Don't be. It's not your fault, and it isn't theirs either. They didn't know. It was a mistake," he didn't stop to respond, but instead went back down the stairs.

Lisbon leaned against the wall for a minute, thoroughly embarrassed. Then she went back down the stairs as well.

Jane ushered everyone out of his house and back to the car. The ride back to CBI passed in silence and seemed much longer than it actually was.

* * *

James had cleared off the kitchen table and was playing Slapjack with Van Pelt and Cho when Lisbon, Jack, Beth, and Jane walked in.

"Food!" James exclaimed.

"Yes, food," Lisbon replied, "Help put it together. Play time is over."

"As you wish, Queen Resa!" James said with finesse and gathered up the cards to make room for the bags of groceries.

The Lisbons, Van Pelt, and Beth stayed in the kitchen to make sandwiches. Cho and Jane retreated to the bull pen.

"Ha ha!" Rigsby suddenly exclaimed, "I finished!" He closed the Boris file on his desk and leaned back.

"I thought you finished last night before you fell asleep?" Cho said.

"I planned on it… but that didn't work out," Rigsby admitted. "Jane, did you put the idea in the children's minds to go on a picnic?"

"There's only one child here, and yes, I might have." Jane smiled.

"No, there are three. Beth, Jim, and Jack," Rigsby smiled as well. "And _why_?"

"Picnics are fun! When was the last time you went on one?"

"Not long enough ago."

"Come on, Rigsby, it'll be fun!" Jane sounded convincing, but Rigsby only shook his head and picked the file off his desk to drop it off on Lisbon's.

"Jane," Cho sighed as he sat down, "has anyone ever told you that you're annoying?"

"Oh, just a couple of times," Jane replied and sat at Van Pelt's desk.

A few minutes later, Van Pelt came into the bull pen and announced that it was time to go. Jane popped right up. Cho and Rigsby were a bit slower. Everyone made their way out to the parking lot.

"I can take four in my car," Jane offered.

"I'll come! I'll come!" Beth volunteered and stood by Jane.

"Teresa's car can take the rest," James said, holding up keys.

Lisbon recognized the keys as hers. "James!"

"Yes, my dear?"

"Give me my keys!"

"No can do. I'm driving!"

"If my car so much as gets a scratch, you're cleaning my entire apartment without Jack's help."

"So be it!" James declared and hopped into Lisbon's car. Jack got into the passenger's seat.

Cho and Rigsby looked at each other, then at Lisbon, and then headed to the car that was sure to almost crash 15 times.

Lisbon rubbed her forehead. "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to let them get licenses."

Jane led the way to his car. Van Pelt and Beth climbed into the back, and Lisbon got into the front. Then it was off to the park.

* * *

I know! I'm sorry! This chapter was really short, and semi-uneventful! ...And I updated later than I told most of you reviewers... I make up for it next chapter, though, promise! Don't send the ninjas after me! ...although... I could take them. Ninja assassins totally pwn plain ninjas. :D

Anywho.... reviews make me cry with joy! I like having new messages in my inbox! Push the green button. Come on, it's fun!


	12. Chapter 12

Hi.... I had my own sort of Jim and Jack over for a week... so I was too busy to update... yeah...

* * *

The ride to the park was entertaining for Jane and Beth, but extremely stressful for Lisbon. James was right on Jane's tail the entire time. At stop lights he'd take his foot off the brake, inch forward, brake, inch forward, brake… His turns were rather severe as well.

Jane pulled into the park's parking lot and turned off his car. James parked so close to Jane that Lisbon couldn't even open her door to get out without hitting her own car. She pulled out her phone, dialed, and waited.

In the next car, James pulled out his phone and flipped it open, "Yes?"

"Pull out and park properly," Lisbon growled.

James chuckled, but obeyed. Once out of the car, he was slapped upside the head by his sister.

The group headed over to a patch of grass in the sun and set everything up. Lisbon was rather surprised that the park was devoid of other people.

Beth looked over at the jungle gym just a few yards away.

Jane followed her eyes and smiled. He was going to make sure that everyone, _everyone_, had some fun on the gym today.

"Jim!" Jack exclaimed, "JIM! A JUNGLE GYM!!!"

"NO WAY!" James shouted. He and Jack ran towards the structure like mad men.

Beth couldn't resist. She ran off with them.

Lisbon ran a hand down her face. "I might as well send them to Neverland."

"Oh, man! I wanted to go there so bad as a kid," Rigsby admitted, "I really wanted to meet Peter Pan and help him fight Captain Hook."

Jane smiled from ear to ear. This is what he wanted. The agents' guards were falling, and they were beginning to be themselves.

Cho laid down on the blanket he'd help to lay out and closed his eyes, not wanting to look at the sun. Van Pelt sat down a couple of feet away. Rigsby was watching the twins and Beth play on the jungle gym.

Jane's lips twitched up just a little bit more. "You want to go play with them, don't you, Rigsby?"

"No," Rigsby scoffed.

"Liar," Jane accused. Rigsby ignored him and looked into the picnic basket.

"Hey!" Lisbon said, smacking Rigsby's hand as it made its way towards a sandwich. "If you want to eat, go get James, Jack, and Beth first!"

Rigsby sighed before heading towards the brightly colored structure. Beth slid down a slide and met Rigsby at the end. She grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the structure. He gave in and started playing woodchips.

Van Pelt couldn't help but laugh at the sight of three grown men playing woodchips with an eight year old little girl.

Said eight year old little girl suddenly abandoned the play structure and ran towards the blanket. "Grace! Come on! Come play!" she requested, trying to pull Van Pelt up.

"Alright, alright!" Van Pelt forfeited and got up.

Beth didn't stop there. "Patrick, I know you want to play," she said with a bright smile.

Jane smiled back and nodded.

Beth still wasn't satisfied. She stood in front of Lisbon, looked up at her, and gave her best smile.

Lisbon looked back, reluctance clear on her face. "Wayne, Grace, and Patrick are playing!" Beth persuaded.

Lisbon knew there was no way out. It would be better to go willingly than have Beth report to the twins that she refused to play. She agreed.

That still wasn't the end. "Cho! Cho!" the girl called out, coming over next to him.

"No," he said, before she asked.

"Come on! Please?" she pouted.

Cho opened an eye and looked at her.

"Cho, if I'm playing, you're playing," Lisbon said, "it's not up for debate."

Cho pushed himself onto his elbows and looked at the people remaining by the blanket. He realized, like Lisbon, that there wasn't a way out. He sighed and stood up.

Beth was positively beaming and ran back to the jungle gym. Everyone else was slower to make their way.

"This is your fault," Cho said to Jane.

"I didn't ask her to come get everyone. If you want to point fingers at someone, I'd look towards Jim and Jack," Jane responded.

After fifteen minutes everyone, even Cho, was smiling and really getting into the game. It would have been quite an odd sight to anyone passing by. Five people in work suits, two people who were so obviously dressed as college students, and an 8 year old playing on a massive children's structure. It was definitely not something one saw every day.

Lisbon let the game run another ten minutes before calling out that they needed to eat their food before ants did. Everyone got off and headed towards their basket. James and Jack tossed sandwiches and a pack of fruit snacks to everyone while Beth skipped around giving everyone a juice box.

Rigsby had already eaten his sandwich by the time everyone else had gotten theirs.

"Ah, Wayne. Lucky for you, we know that you like to eat!" James joked, throwing Rigsby another sandwich.

Lunch was fun. Everyone's guards were near non existent, and all joked freely. Every once and a while, Jane saw James or Jack sneak a picture of someone. He smiled every time. They were too clever.

After eating, Beth demanded a continuation of woodchips. James and Jack immediately agreed and went over with her. The CBI team stayed behind, not ready to move yet.

"Alright," Cho said suddenly, "I'm going to say this. I'm going to miss that kid!"

Lisbon gasped. "No! Say it isn't so! Who are you and what'd you do to Cho? He'd never admit such a thing!"

"Haha," Cho quipped.

"Well," Van Pelt said with some uncertainty, "she's going to visit. Isn't she?" Van Pelt looked at Jane for confirmation.

"She will, don't worry. You'll still have your live Barbie to play with," Jane teased.

Van Pelt gave a wide smile and grabbed another juice box from the basket. "Gosh, I haven't had one of these in ages! I forgot how good they are!"

Cho reached into the basket and grabbed a can of soda. "How much stuff did you manage to get in here?"

"A lot," Lisbon said with a shrug and popped a potato chip into her mouth.

Jane was truly enjoying himself. He loved seeing his colleagues like this. Stress free, enjoying themselves, reverting back to childlike habits.

"It's funny," Van Pelt voiced, "that so much has happened over the past couple of days because of that little girl."

"I think Jim and Jack have helped out quite a bit, too," Rigsby commented.

"Enjoy them while they're here," Lisbon said, slipping on sunglasses, "They start internships in two weeks."

"Yeah," Cho said from his laid back position, "but they're probably like Jane in the sense that you can't get rid of them."

"Should I take offense?" Jane asked with a smile as everyone laughed.

"Yeah, you can't really get rid of them," Lisbon admitted. She suddenly sat up straighter, "Jane," she said anxiously, "do you know what Jack isn't telling me?"

"What do you mean?" Jane asked, leaning back onto his elbows.

"There's something Jack isn't telling me! I keep asking, and he keeps dodging!"

Jane looked thoughtful for a second. This truly was bugging Lisbon. He smiled. "Where's Jack's cell?"

"Rigsby, toss me my bag, will you?" Lisbon requested. Rigsby threw her bag to her and she started going through it. "I saw them throw their phones in here before they took off to go play… Here it is! …Nope, that's James'. This one is Jack's." She tossed the phone to the consultant.

Jane flipped it open.

"Wait!" Lisbon protested, "You're not going to go through his phone?"

"Why else would he ask for it?" Cho asked.

"Do you want to know, or not?" Jane questioned. Lisbon only sighed. "That's what I thought. When Jack asks, you can honestly say that you didn't look." Jane started flitting through the contents of Jack's phone, finally getting to the text messages.

"Why is that kid so good at every game she plays?" Rigsby asked as he watched Beth jump up onto a slide just before James called woodchips.

"I was that way," Lisbon said, "There's nothing wrong with it. She's just a fast learner."

"I didn't say anything was wrong with it. Just wondering," Rigsby answered with a shrug.

"I remember the first time I played volleyball," Lisbon started, "all the girls got so mad at me because I could do an over hand serve after five tries, and I could aim it in three more."

"Volleyball was definitely not my thing," Van Pelt commented, "I couldn't even do underhand serving!"

"What else are you supposed to expect from a football coach's daughter?" Jane said, still reading Jack's messages, "Your sport was basketball, and that was only because girls weren't allowed to play football."

"Girls at my school played football on the playground all the time," Rigsby joined in, "It was touch football, but it could still get pretty nasty…"

"The girls in my town didn't want to play football," Van Pelt said, "They wanted to watch the boys play and then fawn over them later."

"But you didn't," Rigsby said hopefully. It was obvious to Jane that he was trying to keep jealousy out of his voice. Rigsby had been a football player. He knew what some girls would do to try to get his attention.

"No, I didn't. My job after the games was to make sure all the guys drank a lot of water."

"And they did it in a heartbeat," Jane added.

"Yup, they did." Van Pelt smiled.

"Why?" Rigsby said suspiciously.

"Because I had permission from their coach to beat them senseless if they didn't, and they knew I would," Van Pelt couldn't help but grin as Rigsby winced.

"The guys at my school preferred to drink beer, not water," Cho commented.

"Not my dad's team," Van Pelt said seriously, "If they got caught drinking or smoking, they'd have to run laps around the school all practice while holding their gear above their heads. If they got caught again, they had to clean the locker room, as well."

"Why not just boot them off the team?" Rigsby asked. "That's what my coach did."

"My dad didn't. If he kicked them off, they'd only have more time to drink and smoke and get into other bad habits," Van Pelt explained.

"Yes, a very good coach indeed," Jane said, "I bet those guys on the team never forgot your dad, and I bet they came from far and wide when they found out that he was in an accident."

Van Pelt suddenly froze.

"Didn't it prevent him from coaching anymore?" Jane asked, looking up from the phone to Van Pelt.

"Yeah, it did," she conceded.

"Accident?" Lisbon asked, sucking on her juice box straw.

"Well," Van Pelt started, suddenly uncomfortable, "it wasn't really an accident." Van Pelt didn't need to see her boss's eyes to know that she wanted to hear more. "My dad got a lot of the boys off the streets, off drugs, off alcohol. The team was really tight and really enjoyed being around each other. We'd have a lot of dinners together and such; they might as well have been my brothers. But then on the other side, there were the people that made their living off of the boys' bad habits. And they weren't happy with my dad. A couple of them watched a practice one time, waited for the guys to leave, and met my dad in the locker room. He was in the hospital for a month."

Jane made eye contact with Van Pelt in the silence that had settled. He knew that wasn't the whole story, not at all. Van Pelt was in there somewhere, she'd actually had a large unintentional part in it. But Jane decided that she was uncomfortable enough as it was and didn't push further.

"And then you decided to become the person that would people like the ones that attacked your dad off the streets," Lisbon said. She actually smiled, trying to ease the awkwardness.

"Yep," Van Pelt admitted. "I told my dad that when he got home. He was actually pretty happy. He was also pretty brutally honest, though. He told me that he wouldn't be able to save me from dangerous situations anymore. I'd have to call one of the guys from the team."

"Anymore?" Rigsby asked.

"Well, yeah. He'd already saved me from a couple. So had the guys on the team. Like I said, we were family. I'm still in contact with quite a few of them."

"What'd you do in high school, Cho?" Rigsby inquired.

"Studied," Cho said shortly.

"No, come on! What did you do?" Van Pelt asked, thankful to have the attention off her.

Cho sighed. "I was on the Science Olympiad team until halfway through sophomore year."

"Ohh! What events?" Lisbon asked.

Van Pelt, Rigsby and Jane looked at her oddly. Cho would have if he weren't so comfortable. "What? My friend was on it. They kept trying to convince me to join, but I couldn't."

"I was in Herpetology and Forensics," Cho answered.

"My friend was in Forensics! He loved it. His favorite part was messing with all the chemicals,"

"We did not _mess_ with chemicals, we tested them!" Cho corrected.

"Sorry, his favorite part was _testing_ the chemicals," Lisbon said teasingly. "When he went into the Army he helped develop new masks and stuff. He still got his chemicals. He was happy."

"Why only through sophomore year?" Rigsby asked, propping himself onto his elbows.

"I switched schools," Cho said shortly, making it clear that was all he'd say.

"My school didn't have a Science Olympiad team," Van Pelt said, "which is really sad, because I always heard from my cousin that it was a lot of fun!"

"It was," Cho confessed, "when we were together. We got pounded during the school day though. Labeled science nerds."

"Typical," Lisbon said, shaking her head, "the same thing happened at my school. I know that there were some kids on the team that really wanted to go out for basketball or football, but were too scared to. It's a shame. They would have been really good."

"Why does everyone go straight to the football guys when they talk about being beat up?" Rigsby asked defensively.

"Because not all football players were as nice as you, Rigsby," Jane said, pushing a couple more buttons on Jack's phone.

"The guys on my team were pretty decent…"

"That's what you think," Cho interjected, "I'd see them at practice on my way home from school. They'd all be nice to each other and around each other. If they were in big groups they'd be more likely to leave you alone. But if there were just two or three of them in the halls, you'd better run."

Rigsby sighed in frustration. The guys on his team were really nice. He never saw any of them beating anyone.

Jane shut Jack's phone and tossed it back to Lisbon.

"Well?" she said expectantly.

"I think it'd be best if I didn't tell you," Jane grinned.

"What?!" Now Lisbon was disbelieving. "Come on, Jane! Really?"

"You'll find out soon, don't worry. But I don't want to ruin the surprise. He's kept it from you for a long time."

Lisbon threw a pack of fruit snacks at the consultant and hit him right in the face.

"Very mature, Lisbon," Jane said sarcastically as he pulled open the small bag.

"Since when are you allowed to say such things?"

"I'm immature all the time," Jane defended, "You're the team leader, and as such supposed to be very mature."

Before Lisbon could respond, Beth came up to the blanket and put her hands on her hips, clearly wanting them all to get up. Sighing and grumbling, they got up and followed the girl back to the jungle gym where they played for another 40 minutes before Lisbon called it quits.

"Why?" Beth whined.

"Because we have to get back to the office by 5, and it's 3:30," Lisbon responded.

"It didn't take us an hour and a half to get here," Beth argued.

"You're right, it didn't," Lisbon replied calmly, "but we've got to get back and get cleaned up and pack you up. Come on."

"Alright," Beth said sadly. She grudgingly got back into Jane's car, though cheered up when the ride back turned up much like the ride there.

"I should have told James to give the keys to Jack!" Lisbon exclaimed as James let his foot off the brake at a stoplight and only put it back on when he was an inch from Jane's car.

* * *

So I'm pretty sure that's one of the longest chapters I've ever written...

Anywho! Make my day and leave a review, please!


	13. Chapter 13

Back at the office, Van Pelt helped Beth pack up her things. Lisbon was putting together some of the last paperwork that would be signed and finalized when Miss Amor and the social worker came. Jane printed off pictures inside Lisbon's office so that James and Jack could get them into the scrapbook before Beth had to leave. Rigsby and Cho were out hunting and gathering, trying to find a take out place that they hadn't already eaten at that week.

Jane printed off the last picture and went into the kitchen. "Here you go," he said, handing the picture over to Jack.

"Success!" Jack exclaimed.

"Look at this!" James proclaimed proudly, "We managed to get pictures of everyone smiling, and everyone on the jungle gym. Do you know what an accomplishment that is?"

"Believe me, I do!" Jane chuckled and began helping to put pictures into the book.

All too soon, the elevator doors dinged open and Miss Amor walked in, trailing a social worker. Lisbon met them and shook their hands. She gestured to the conference room and then called Jane over. He didn't think his being there was necessary, but he went anyway.

"Jane, this is Miss Kelly Amor and Mrs. Amanda Strader," Lisbon introduced.

"Miss Amor," Jane shook her hand, "Mrs. Strader," Jane shook her hand as well and then sat down.

Mrs. Strader got right down to business, "The court has granted Kelly Amor custody of Bethany Boris. We're here to discuss what you've assessed of the girl since she's been here, and if you think that she'll adjust well."

"Oh, I think she'll adjust just fine," Jane said. His eyes sparkled with sincerity. "Beth is a very fun loving, fast learning child."

"So be it," Mrs. Strader said. "We're also here to discuss Jim Boris."

"What about him?" Lisbon tried not to sound harsh.

"I don't want to allow him visitation rights," Kelly Amor stated.

The sparkle left Jane's eyes. "That'd be very cruel."

"_He _was very cruel!" Amor defended, "I lost count of how many times that girl came to school limping or bruised!"

"He wasn't in the right state of mind. He's getting help now. I assure you that if he was in the right mind, he would never have hurt his daughter," Jane replied calmly.

"You're defending him?" Miss Amor sounded disgusted, "You've spent days with that little girl, and you're defending her father for beating her?"

"I'm not defending him for beating her. That is inexcusable. A father shouldn't ever do that to his children. Don't get me wrong. What I'm trying to say is that if you denied him visiting rights he will simply go back to the way he was. All his therapy will go to waste. He wants to see his daughter, and his daughter will still want to see him, so long as she knows she won't be hurt."

"Agent Lisbon," Mrs. Strader started, "what do you think?"

Lisbon managed to keep her face calm and pushed her emotions into submission. "I understand where you're coming from, Miss Amor, I truly do, but I agree with Mr. Jane. I think both Mr. and Bethany Boris will be better off if they see each other, if only once in a while."

"Miss Amor, do you still maintain that you do not want to grant Jim Boris these rights?" Strader pushed.

Kelly Amor pursed her lips. She wanted what was best for Beth, but now she had two different views of what would be best. "After he comes out of therapy, I'll allow him to visit. We can set how often that is later."

Jane's smile returned. "Alright!" he said, up for more, "What's next?"

Mrs. Strader looked disapprovingly at the consultant. "We're still on the same subject, Mr. Jane. Since Mr. Boris is now going to be allowed to visit, there are conditions. Considering his violent past few months, he cannot be permitted to visit in the private property of Miss Amor's home without supervision."

Jane looked over at Lisbon. This was for her to discuss now.

"I can send an agent to the house on the days he visits," Lisbon suggested.

"Done," Strader said. She wrote down a few things.

Miss Amor looked past Jane and Lisbon. There was a clear view of the bull pen from the conference room. Jane turned his head back to look at the bull pen as well. Beth had apparently convinced Rigsby to give her a piggy back ride and was clearly enjoying it. She pointed at Van Pelt, and Rigsby started off in her direction. Van Pelt retreated to the kitchen, but was promptly pushed out by James and Jack.

Beth jumped off Rigsby's back and attacked Van Pelt, poking her in the stomach. Van Pelt began tickling the girl.

"She really enjoys it here, doesn't she?" Miss Amor asked, still staring out the window.

"Yes, she does," Jane said, turning around back to the table. Mrs. Strader was ready to continue.

Rigsby had been sitting at his desk, flipping through files.

"Psst!" sounded a voice. Rigsby pretended not to hear. "I said, PSSST!" Beth repeated impatiently.

Rigsby looked up and leaned on his elbows. "Yes?"

"I have a fun idea."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"A piggy back ride!" Beth exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air.

"A piggy back ride? That's your idea?"

"Yes! It is!"

"As the lady demands!" Rigsby got out of his chair and helped the small girl onto his back.

"Now for the really fun part," Beth said mischievously. She pointed at Van Pelt who was sitting at the couch, trying to fold up Beth's comforter. "Get her!" she demanded.

Van Pelt looked up in time to see Rigsby coming at her with Beth on his back. She smiled and played along, running away to the kitchen.

"Grace!" James shouted, "Out! You've got Beth tailing you!" He pushed Van Pelt back into the hallway, where she was met with Beth, who quickly began poking the agent in the stomach. Van Pelt reacted before Beth found out how ticklish she was. She tickled Beth's neck. The little girl squealed and tried to run away, but Van Pelt caught her and held her captive on the couch.

"You thought you could get away with poking me, eh?" Van Pelt questioned.

Beth only giggled in response.

"Not a good enough answer!" Van Pelt said seriously. "Rigsby, help me out here. We have to show her what happens to people in this office that poke agents."

Rigsby grinned and approached Beth playfully. He picked her up out of Van Pelt's arms and lay her down on the couch. "All yours, Agent Van Pelt."

"Thank you, Agent Rigsby!" Van Pelt replied. She grinned as she began tickling Beth again, and this time, there wasn't any escaping. Rigsby made sure of that.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Beth cried through her laughter.

"Can I hear a please?" Van Pelt requested calmly.

"Please!" Beth squeaked.

Van Pelt stopped tickling, and Rigsby released his hold. Beth sat up to discover that she had hiccups. "Grace!" she whined.

"Well now you know not to poke me anymore," Van Pelt reasoned.

Beth's eyes suddenly lit up. "Are you –hic- ticklish?"

"No," Van Pelt said, lying as well as she could.

"Agent Cho, do you believe that?" Beth yelled across the bull pen.

"Nope," he replied.

"I don't either!" Beth stated, then stood up and walked towards Van Pelt with her hands outstretched.

"Beth…"

"Yes, Grace?"

"Don't…"

"Agent Rigsby…" Beth turned towards the man with puppy dog eyes, "Can you help me?"

"As the lady wishes," Rigsby said with a bow. He turned towards Van Pelt.

"Rigsby, no!" Van Pelt shouted.

"Sorry," Rigsby said unconvincingly, "I can't go against the little Lady's wishes!" He lunged at Van Pelt, grabbing her arms and holding them behind her back. She couldn't get away anymore. Beth approached, and then started tickling the red headed agent.

Lisbon cleared her throat loudly from the entrance to the bull pen. Beth looked at her and smiled. Rigsby let go of Van Pelt, who had gotten the hiccups that had left Beth.

Beth looked past Lisbon and saw Miss Amor and the social worker. She knew she'd be leaving soon. Her face fell slightly. "Hi, Miss Amor!"

"Hello, Beth!" Miss Amor returned warmly.

"Um… about that," Van Pelt began trying to explain to her boss.

"You know what?" Lisbon said with a smile, "I don't want to hear the excuse."

James popped his head out of the kitchen. "I set the table, Queen Resa. Would you mind inspecting it before I call everyone in?"

Lisbon rolled her eyes and headed to the kitchen. James called everyone in a moment later.

Miss Amor and Mrs. Strader didn't seem sure of what to do.

"Come join us!" Rigsby invited, gesturing towards the kitchen. Miss Amor smiled and headed that way. Mrs. Strader thanked Rigsby, but said she had to go home and left.

Things began the way they had in the past couple of meals. Beth requested to pray, Jane left, someone else led, and then Jane returned after everyone had started on their food.

James leaned over and whispered something to Rigsby.

Rigsby shifted in his chair and looked at James, "Don't mess with me, Jim. I'll take you out."

"Naw!" James said loudly, "Terry'd take you out before you took me out."

Lisbon smiled as she chewed and shook her head. She was pretty sure she knew what James was teasing Rigsby about.

James and Jack had again decided that Lisbon was being too boring and started throwing grains of their Spanish rice at her.

One hit Lisbon in the face. She rose, grabbed her brothers' plates, went over to the trash can, and threatened to dump the food in.

"You wouldn't waste food like that, Teresa!" James said uneasily.

"I wouldn't?" Lisbon challenged. She tipped one of the plates. A few chips fell into the trash.

"Queen Resa! No!" James exclaimed, throwing himself to the ground. Jack went with him.

"Dearest Queen Resa, we beg you not to throw our food away!" Jack said with mock tears.

"We are but poor college students. We can't afford another meal for at least three days!" James sobbed.

"It seems to me like you can live without your food, you throw so much of it," Lisbon said, looking down on her brothers.

"We shan't do it again!" Jack declared.

"You'd better not," Lisbon responded, "It'll be straight off with your heads next time." Lisbon handed her brothers their plates back and they retreated to the table and began shoveling the food into their mouths, keeping an eye on their sister the whole time.

"Would you stop being creepy?" she demanded.

"Johnny," James started, his mouth full of food. He was hardly comprehendible, "are we being creepy?"

Jack shook his head and returned to watching his sister as he ate.

"Cho, Rigsby, smack them for me, will you?"

Cho and Rigsby looked at each other and then slapped the twin's head closest to them.

"Ouch!" the twins exclaimed.

"Jeez! That really did hurt," Jack complained as he rubbed his head and glaring at Cho.

"I warned you," Lisbon said without remorse.

"Well here's our warning to you," James said while pointing a forkful of quesadilla at her, "you're not staying at the office tonight."

Lisbon only shook her head. She wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of arguing. She had the keys to the car and to the apartment. She was in complete control.

The rest of dinner passed with pleasant conversation and teasing. It was over far too soon for most everyone's taste.

"I hate to ruin the fun," Miss Amor said, standing up, "but we should get going…"

Lisbon always hated good-byes. It signaled the end of something, and they were always sad.

Beth said good bye to Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt before getting to James and Jack.

"Well, little one," James sighed, "We'll miss you dearly."

"But," Jack continued, "we want to present you with this," he pulled the photo album out from behind his back, "as a reminder of us and to make you want to come back and visit!"

Beth took the binder and flipped through it quickly before hugging the twins. After that, she moved onto Jane. She hugged him, thanked him, and promised to visit.

Now there was only Lisbon left. The woman went down to be at eye level with the girl.

Beth smiled from ear to ear. "Thank you!" She hugged Lisbon.

Lisbon eventually pulled the little girl off. She gave her all of her numbers. "You call me when you need me, no matter what time it is, ok?"

"I will!" Beth promised.

"And you come visit whenever Miss Amor lets you, got it?" Lisbon said seriously, despite her smile.

"I promise!"

"Alright. Go on, get going," Lisbon gave Beth a little push. Beth went with Miss Amor. Rigsby and Cho helped bring her things out to the car. They came back and everyone noticed that the office was extremely quiet.

"Well…" Lisbon said, breaking silence, "there's no point in staying here tonight. Go home, everyone. I'll see you on Monday."

Everyone grabbed their things and headed to their respective cars, not saying anything to each other.

* * *

Don't start crying just yet! Yes, Beth left, but that doesn't mean the story is over! It just means a new stage of it is beginning. Chill out. Kick back, relax. More will come.

Your opinion is of importance to me. Please tell me what it is in one of those fantastic things called reviews!


	14. Chapter 14

Teresa Lisbon unlocked her apartment door and entered. James and Jack were right behind her.

"Dibs on the couch!" James shouted.

"James! Shut it! There are people in this building trying to sleep, you know!" Teresa snapped.

"What the heck? It's only 11!" They'd left the office at seven, but had gone out for ice cream and then Jack had taken the keys and they simply went on a joy ride.

"And you aren't at college anymore. People in the real world have to wake up at the same time every day for work, and try to get enough sleep!"

"Pfft," Jack said, heading over to the recliner, "Sleep is far overrated."

Teresa glared at him. He'd been sleeping just fine the past couple of nights. She had a load of cover up on under her eyes to hide the fact that she hadn't been.

"Just keep it down to a dull roar."

"Yes, you're Highness!" James mocked and flopped down on the couch.

Teresa retreated to her kitchen. They'd be asleep in 15 minutes, she was sure. She opened a cabinet and looked at one of the small bottles that greeted her. She didn't know whether she wanted to try sleeping without help tonight, or just go ahead and be safe and take a couple of sleeping pills. Shaking her head as she replaced the bottle on the shelf, deciding that she didn't need it, she went back to the front room.

The TV had been turned on, and her brothers were already asleep in front of it. Teresa smiled and went to her own room. She washed her face and got into bed. She didn't realize how much she missed it. Amazing what sleeping on the floor for two nights could do.

"_Teresa! Come on! Get up!" shouted her father from the doorway of her room._

_She looked at her clock. It was 2:30 in the morning, and she had school tomorrow. None the less, she put her slippers on and followed him out the door, thinking that it'd be best to cooperate. She reached the front room. Her brothers were already gathered up and leaning against each other on the couch._

_Her father grabbed his keys and opened the front door. "Come on! Let's go, children!"_

"_Where are we going, Dad?" Jack asked, rubbing his eyes._

"_We're going on an adventure!" Her father smiled and seemed to be very cheery. Teresa checked the counters and kitchen table quickly. There weren't any empty bottles… What was going on?_

_The family piled into the car, Teresa in the front. Her father took off…_

Lisbon leaned up in bed. She could feel the blood rushing through her. She pulled the covers off her and went back to the kitchen. Two small pills fell out of the bottle and into her hand. She swallowed them dry and went back to her room. She'd tried, but she couldn't sleep peacefully without help; not tonight, at least.

* * *

Patrick Jane lay awake in bed, staring at the bloody smiley face on the wall. It was taunting him. He hated it. He hated it with every fiber of his being. Its existence was the bane of his own. As long as the man that put it up there with his wife and child's blood was alive, Jane wouldn't sleep peacefully.

The last couple of days had been painful. So many things had come into Jane's mind that he'd managed to shove away for years. And in spite of all of it, he had to smile and act like nothing was wrong. It was that little girl! She reminded him so much of his own daughter. She was smart, happy, bubbly, and demanding, in a good way.

Jane got up and started wandering around his house with no purpose in mind. He didn't have to go to work tomorrow, which just made things worse. He'd be left alone with only his thoughts as company.

As painful as the last days had been, they'd also been strangely enjoyable. Jane had forgotten how fun it was to play all the childish games. He'd also learned a lot about his coworkers and was filling holes in their pasts rapidly.

Grabbing a rag to mindlessly dust the first floor, Jane began weaving together Van Pelt's past. From little bits about her past that she'd let loose over the time she'd worked at CBI, he had gathered that her father was a football coach, she had no siblings, and her family was deeply religious. He also knew that she'd grown up without a mother. His best guess as of now was that Mrs. Van Pelt had died during childbirth.

As she'd grown up, her dad brought her to every football practice and every game. She was appropriately feminine, although she could shout louder than any girl in her class and there was no one in the school that dared messed with her. She hadn't ever dated while in school. Between the team and her father, all the guys that would have were too frightened. If they so much as laid a hand on her, that hand would promptly be snapped off.

Jane guessed that her father had been attacked in her junior year. She'd been there, in the locker room, and so had a few members of the beloved football team. Considering it was most likely drug dealers that had come for vengeance, there had probably been shots fired and punches thrown. Van Pelt hadn't been a part of that though. No… the dealers would have wanted her father to suffer as much as possible, but not to kill his princess. She had to stay alive as a reminder…

Jane shook his head violently. He was getting too far into it. He pulled himself out of his musings.

He lowered the dusting rag to his side. He'd already gone through the entire front room thoroughly. He looked to his kitchen for something to do without any positive results. The dishes were all clean, the cabinets were perfectly organized, the floor might as well have been sparkling, and the table and counter were cleared.

The vacuum cleaner! That's what he needed! Now where had he put it?

Jane eventually found the vacuum cleaner in the coat closet. He plugged it in, turned it on, and started cleaning off his couch. As he did, he started looking at the puzzle pieces he had of Lisbon's past. He was still missing some of the boarder pieces, which was just making it harder to put her story together.

Jane knew Lisbon had been forced to grow up overnight. Her mother had been hit by a drunk driver, although there was more to that story than he knew. That had left her as the woman of the house, caring for her three younger brothers. Lisbon had admitted to a man that was in the same situation her father had been that her father became a hopeless drunk after the car crash. He'd committed suicide and almost taken Lisbon and her brothers with him. The thought made Jane cringe. He looked at the CBI team as his. They were all he really had in life now. The thought that even one of them almost didn't make it to be CBI agents actually hurt. He shrugged it off and continued thinking.

That left Lisbon as the sole caretaker of her brothers. James and Jack frequently mentioned their grandparents, which suggested that they'd moved in with them after their father's death. However, they'd only mentioned their grandfather a couple of times, which made Jane suspect that he either wasn't there too much, or that he _wasn't there_. Lisbon had probably began baby sitting like crazy, grabbing every opportunity she could. People more than likely hired her out of pity. They knew that the Lisbons needed money. Thomas started mowing lawns on the weekends, and during the week he'd take care of the twins for Teresa.

High school graduation had come around. Teresa and her grandparents combined couldn't afford to send her to college right away, so she stayed at home for a couple of years, working at a law firm as a receptionist.

When it came Tom's turn to graduate, he went into the Army instead of college. He knew it would save a lot of money, and he'd be able to make money right away.

When Teresa Lisbon was 21, she and her brothers had probably moved out of their grandparent's house. Jack had told Jane that they were thin on money. The twins made their way through high school, working after school and on weekends to help their siblings come up with much needed money.

And that's all Jane was really able to gather. It bothered him to a degree. Ever since James had told Jane that he found it funny that the team didn't really know that much about each other, it had been on Jane's mind. James couldn't have been more correct. No one knew about anyone's past. Well… everyone knew about Jane's past five years, but that was it. And Jane, being Jane, had outlines of all their lives, but nothing was definite.

He sighed angrily as the vacuum cleaner turned itself off. It'd overheated. He unplugged it and left it out, retreating back to his room. He resumed his staring contest with the damned smiley painted on his wall, determined to win.

* * *

Me is wanting to make a point. The pasts I'm weaving together is guesswork. We have very little back ground for anyone on the Mentalist. So, if something comes up that contradicts anything I've written, I'm wrong. The writers of the show are always right! -sigh- Those darn writers.

Anywho... reviews are much appreciated, and they make me leap for joy!


	15. Chapter 15

Grace Van Pelt opened the door to her third of the building and flipped on her lights. She threw her bags onto her couch and headed to her kitchen. It wasn't long before she had a bar of chocolate in her hand and popcorn in the microwave. She'd had a long week, and she really was going to miss Beth. Who knew how long it would be before she came to visit?

Van Pelt had begun to look through her movies when her cell rang. She looked at the caller ID, smiled, and answered. "Hello?"

"Grace!" said an excited voice, "You're not at work still, are you?"

"No, I'm home for the night, for the first time in three days," Grace smiled. This is what she needed.

The caller was Jake Snafoo. He'd been one of the boys on her dad's football team, just a year older than her. She'd always loved his last name. It was just so much fun to say. Her dad had helped Jake out of a lot of tight spots and was one of the many kids he got to stop drinking. Jake had frequently dined with the Van Pelts as his family was often gone. They'd become really good friends the three years they went to school together.

"Three days? What crazy crook kept you away that long?" Jake asked.

"It wasn't a crazy crook this time, really," Grace explained her past couple of days.

"Wait a second," Jake cut in as Grace told her story of the tickle war that had taken place earlier in the day, "this guy grabbed you from behind and wouldn't let go?"

"No, it wasn't like that," Grace replied quickly, "He would have let go if really need be. He meant no harm."

"Good. I'd hate to give you reason to arrest me," Jake said. Grace could tell he was smiling.

"Enough about me! How's your week been? How's Ashley doing?" Grace asked her last question teasingly. Ashley was Jake's girlfriend. They'd been going out for near three and a half years now.

"Ashley is just fine, thank you very much! I actually just got home from taking her out to dinner. She told me to call you. Had a feeling you needed it. She says hi."

Grace smiled. She'd been fortunate enough to meet Ashley when Jake had visited last year. They'd gotten along very well. "When you talk to her next, tell her I say hi back."

"I will!"

Van Pelt opened her microwave when the popping stopped and opened her bag of popcorn. "Anything else new?" she asked as she threw a couple of pieces into her mouth.

"Mikey's here visiting," Jake said casually.

"Mikey's at your place and you didn't tell me?" Grace raged, "Put him on the phone! I need to yell at him for not talking to me in over a month!"

"I'd love to put him on the phone and listen to you yell at him, Grace, but he's asleep and was smart enough to lock his door."

Grace sighed. Mikey Smith had been another guy on the team. He joined the Marines after high school and his most recent deployment had ended 6 weeks ago.

"You be sure to tell Mikey that he'd better come visit me or I'll come up there and give him a beating that even a marine wouldn't be able to take."

"He's going to come. Don't let him know that you know, though. He was going to surprise you."

"He'd better be glad I know he's coming! If he'd broken into my house I would have taken him out!" Grace replied.

"Well if he finds out I told you he'll take me out!" Jake teased.

Grace sighed and chewed on more popcorn.

"What the hell are you eating?" Jake asked.

"Popcorn and chocolate."

"Oh, man. I'm not getting between a chick and her movie night!"

"No, you're fine," Grace said, "none of my movies are looking all that appealing." In the back round, she heard a door open and close. "Did Mikey wake up?"

"Yeah," Jake whispered.

"Put him on the phone right now,' Grace demanded.

"Oi!" Jake called out, "Mikey!"

"What?" Mikey's distant voice snapped.

"Someone wants to yell at you!"

"Who?"

"It's mini Van Pelt."

"Crap! I'm not here!"

Grace laughed as she listened to her friends.

"I already told her you were, and she heard you come out of your room!"

Grace could hear Mikey's heavy footfalls get closer to the phone. "You'd better sleep with an eye open, Snafoo!"

Jake handed the phone over.

"Hi!" Mikey said, as if everything were normal.

"Where the hell have you been, jar head?" Grace snarled.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!"

"No it wasn't! You've been back for 6 weeks, and you've only talked to me once! And then you come see Jake before me? What's wrong with you? Ladies first!"

"I wasn't aware there was a lady involved," Mikey yawned.

"Real mature, Smith."

"I thought so," he replied sarcastically.

"I'll be nice and let you go back to sleep, but if you don't call me tomorrow I'm coming to get you!"

"Deal!" Mikey quickly said good night and handed to phone back to Jake. Grace heard a _slap_ in the back round and was certain that it was Mikey's hand colliding with the back of Jake's head.

Mikey seemed like he was really rough, but inside he was a big softie. You just had to actually get to know him, and once you did, you'd always want him at your side. He was more loyal than a Saint Bernard.

"Alright, I'm going to head off, too. Ashley decided that we need to go out for breakfast tomorrow at 8," Jake said with a certain degree of disgust.

Grace smiled. She knew how much Jake hated waking up early, for anything. "Alright, happy sleeping!"

"Good night! Don't eat too much chocolate, or it'll take forever to burn off!"

Grace hung up on him. If she didn't, he'd only tease her more. None the less, she resisted grabbing another chocolate bar and picked out an old favorite movie of hers. She turned the TV on and then sat back in her recliner.

She hardly paid attention to _Beauty and the Beast_. Instead, she was thinking about how homesick she was suddenly feeling. She hadn't seen anyone from her hometown in months, and she couldn't afford to take a trip out unless she really had to.

Deciding to call and catch up with everyone tomorrow, Grace drifted into sleep. Her popcorn fell to the floor and spilled, and the movie kept running until the screen turned blue.

_Grace stayed where her father told her, in the corner of the showers, making herself as small as possible. She could hear the dealers in the locker room shouting. She hoped and prayed that they wouldn't hurt anyone. There were still a couple of guys in there._

"_Not such a tough guy anymore, eh, coach?" one of the men mocked. Her dad kept silent. "What? Going to be the bigger person? If you don't fight back we'll leave you alone? You thought wrong! You've cost us a lot of money, pal! Find the girl," he finally ordered. _

_Grace's heart skipped a beat. They were talking about her. She could find her way around the locker room blindfolded, and she knew there was no way she could get to a door safely. She was stuck._

"_Hey, what's she to you?" Mikey. Oh, no! Mikey! Why? Shut up! Shut UP!_

"_Shut up, kid," another dealer demanded._

"_Leave her alone! She didn't do anything to you!"_

"_She didn't, but her daddy did. And what's most important to a daddy? His precious little girl!"_

_Grace covered her mouth to keep from making noise as she heard Mikey lunge at the dealer and knock him into the lockers, and then a gunshot. She heard Mikey groan in pain and tried not to cry. Why would he do that?_

_At that moment, a man came around the corner of the showers and looked at Grace, and smiled. "Hello, dearie!" He pointed a gun at her. "Why don't you go ahead and get up?"_

_Grace pushed herself up and kept her face blank. The dealer led her over to the section of the locker room where her dad was. Mikey was on the ground. He'd been hit in the shoulder. Also in the locker room was Jake, Robert, Will, and Logan. She finally looked at her dad. He sighed and shook his head. She saw worry lines on his face and wanted to cry._

"_Your girl's rather pretty…" the leader of the thugs declared. He looked her up and down, and she realized just how uncomfortable she felt. He grabbed her arm. She screamed and fought, but he was too strong. Her dad and the football guys were forced to watch as he dragged her off._

_She couldn't help but cry as she heard punches being thrown. Then she was thrown to the ground…_

Grace fell out of her recliner. She was breathing heavily and looked around the dark room, thankfully realizing that she'd woken up. She grabbed her phone and flipped quickly through her contacts, finally finding the number she wanted.

The phone rang a couple of times before it was finally answered. "Who the hell is it?" demanded a very groggy sounding voice.

"Mike!" Grace began crying.

"Grace?" Mikey sounded completely awake now, "What's wrong?"

"Mikey, come visit," Grace pleaded.

"Alright, alright," Mikey soothed, "I'll leave Jake's tomorrow. I promise."

Mikey stayed on the phone until he was sure Grace was back asleep.

* * *

I truly want your opinion for this chapter. I am not sure if I'll keep it up or not. I can't make up my mind as to whether or not I like it. -sigh-

Reviews shall make me leap for joy!! :)


	16. Chapter 16

Based on lack of response of last chapter, I have determined that it was not well liked. I was simply going to delete it, then I realized that I needed a part of it. I will work on rewriting it. If you didn't like it, please send me a PM telling me why, and I'll try to fix it to my viewers demands!

Enough of my drabble! On with the story!

* * *

Lisbon was thankful when Monday rolled around. She loved her brothers, she really truly did, but spending an entire weekend with them alone was just plain exhausting! She left her apartment in a hurry and got to the office a whole fifteen minutes early. James and Jack stayed asleep the entire time.

Lisbon went into her office, closed the door, and inhaled deeply. It actually felt nice to be back at work. After a moment, she went into the bull pen to await everyone else's arrival.

"Good morning, Agent Lisbon!" Jane greeted from the couch.

Lisbon looked at the consultant sitting on the couch. "How long have you been here already, Jane?"

"Not long," Jane replied with his eyes closed.

Lisbon frowned. She knew he was lying. But she let it slide and went to the kitchen. She'd rushed through getting ready in the hopes that she would escape her apartment before her brothers woke up. In that rush, she hadn't eaten breakfast.

A box of Captain Crunch was on the counter. Lisbon chuckled at it. That was the one thing of Beth's they'd forgotten to pack up. Figuring they might as well get rid of it, Lisbon poured a bowl for herself.

Cho arrived a couple minutes early and went straight to his desk. Lisbon finished off her bowl of cereal and put it into the sink, then retreated to her office.

Rigsby parked in his usual spot. He was still half asleep. His alarm had opted to take a day off. Rigsby had woken up twenty minutes later than he'd intended.

He got out of his car, locked it, threw his jacket on and headed towards the building. He was almost to the door when a car pulled up and Van Pelt got out.

"Hey!" said a voice inside the car, "I'll pick you up for lunch at 13:30, got it?"

Van Pelt smiled and shook her head. "Bye, Mikey!"

The car drove off and Van Pelt met Rigsby at the door. "Good morning!" she said cheerily.

"Who was that?" Rigsby asked, trying hard to mask the level of his curiosity.

"An old friend," Van Pelt replied, stepping through the door and beginning her way through security.

Rigsby exhaled and took one last look at the car that was driving away before closing the door behind him.

By the time Van Pelt and Rigsby were coming towards the bull pen, Lisbon had come out of her office and was talking to Cho about a cold case he was looking through.

Throughout the morning, Jane noticed that Lisbon seemed a bit off. She wasn't taking as much interest in what was going around her as she usually did, and was fairly sluggish. She also seemed to just be in a bad mood. He shook the thought off and basked in the sunlight on his couch. There were several possibilities as to why a woman would be acting out of character.

Things were moving very slowly until James and Jack came to the rescue and skipped into the bull pen. "Don't fear!" James exclaimed.

"We've made it!" Jack said joyously.

They were greeted only with waves and a smile from Van Pelt and Jane.

"Well it's nice to know we're appreciated," Jack pouted.

"Hey! Teresa!" James called, digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out a small orange bottle with a white cap. "You forgot to take these!"

Lisbon's cheeks flushed bright red and she snatched the bottle of pills from her brother. "What the hell, James?" she snarled under her breath as she walked past him to the kitchen.

"What'd I do?" James asked, honestly confused as he followed her.

"So tactless," Jack commented, sitting down next to Jane on his couch.

Jane chuckled in response. He could see into the kitchen from his couch. Lisbon threw a couple of the pills into her mouth and drank a glass of water before beginning to snap at her brother in a whisper.

Other than that, the next couple of hours were uneventful. At around noon, the team was told to head out.

"Hold on!" James demanded as they all grabbed their things.

"We can't, James!" Lisbon snapped.

"It's a dead body! It's not going anywhere!" James reasoned.

Before Lisbon could start yelling, Jack spoke up, "What do you all want for lunch?"

Cho, Rigsby, Jane, and Lisbon all said they didn't care.

"Grace?" Jack asked, finally turning to her.

"I've actually already got plans for lunch. Thanks though!" she admitted.

"Lunch plans?" James questioned, turning to his twin, "What could this mean, Johnny?"

"I don't know, Jimmy. Let us ponder the meaning of these lunch plans."

The twins went into identical positions. They placed the bulk of their weight on one leg, put a finger to their chin, and looked skyward.

"Alright," Lisbon ordered, "don't move from that position."

James and Jack immediately froze completely. Lisbon rolled her eyes and turned towards the elevators.

The team piled back into the car after getting a look at the crime scene and asking the usual questions. Van Pelt looked at the clock. 2:00.

"Oh, shoot!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Lisbon asked as she pulled herself into the car.

"Nothing," Van Pelt lied. She pulled out her phone, turned it on, and sent a text message.

The entire thirty minute ride back to headquarters was spent discussing the case. Van Pelt had almost forgotten her missed appointment when she walked through the elevator doors into the office.

There was Mikey, sitting on Jane's couch in his Marine camouflage.

"Grace Van Pelt," he said lazily, "you're late."

Van Pelt grinned. "I apologize for doing my job, Michael Smith. I'm ready to go now, though, if you'd like."

"Yeah, sure," Mikey said with a shrug, "I already checked in. I don't have to be back until 7." He got off the couch, ready to go.

"Wait!" Van Pelt said quickly as he started to head towards the exit, "Don't you want to meet everyone first?"

"Alright, but then we've got to get going!" Mikey turned around and stood next to the junior agent. He stood stick straight, feet together, arms at his sides.

"This is the team consultant, Patrick Jane," Van Pelt pointed him out. Mikey shook his hand and returned to his previous stance.

"Agent Cho," Mikey shook his hand as well. "Agent Rigsby," this handshake lasted longer than the previous ones. Jane could tell it was Rigsby that made it last. He couldn't help but smile. Van Pelt's friend might look scrawny in his unfitted uniform, but he'd be able to give Rigsby a run for his money.

"And this is my boss, Agent Lisbon," Van Pelt said finally.

"Ma'am," Mikey greeted as he shook her hand.

"This is Mikey Smith. He was on my dad's football team," Van Pelt introduced.

"It was nice to meet you all, but we've got to get going. If I'm not back on base by 7, I'll be doing push ups until midnight."

"Alright, alright!" Van Pelt said somewhat irritably before taking off with the marine.

"I don't like him," Rigsby admitted after the elevator doors shut.

Lisbon scoffed and went to the kitchen. She was rather surprised when she didn't find her brothers there. Where had they gone?

"You'd better learn to like him," Jane told Rigsby, "he's one of Van Pelt's closest friends, and he was just stationed at the base a couple of miles from here."

"What?" Rigsby snapped.

"He wanted to tell Van Pelt something. And if he was on leave, why would he be in uniform?" Jane reasoned. Rigsby sighed and retreated to his desk.

Jane tried to doze off on his couch for a while before he gave up. He sat up and announced, "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back later."

"Sure," Cho said dryly without looking up from his desk.

A short while after Jane left, James and Jack galloped into the office with several arrays of flowers.

"Hey, where'd that Mike guy go?" James asked, stopping in his tracks.

"To lunch with Van Pelt," Cho responded shortly.

"Ohhh! Those were her lunch plans! That guy was pretty cool. I bet Grace'll flip when she finds out where he was just stationed!" Jack said with a smile.

Lisbon came out of her office. "James, Jack, what's with the flowers?"

"We figured that it was such a nice day out, we should go visit Tom, Mom, and Dad!" James exclaimed.

Lisbon grabbed her jacket. She knew it was useless to fight leaving. "You two can visit Dad. I'll stay with Mom and Tom."

The siblings continued the argument that made no sense at all to Rigsby or Cho into the elevator, out to the car, and on the way to the large plot of land filled with headstones.

* * *

-insert witty comment here- My brain isn't working right now. Sleep deprivation. OVer the summer. It's cruel.

Please review! :D


	17. Chapter 17

Lisbon lay down between her mother and her brother's graves. James and Jack had gone off to find their father's. Lisbon didn't want any part of it. She hadn't visited that grave since the day the headstone was put into place, and she didn't intend on that changing.

Ten minutes passed in silence. Just Lisbon and her deceased family. Then she felt a shadow come over her.

"Lisbon?" asked a familiar voice.

Lisbon opened her eyes and looked up at the blonde haired, blue eyed consultant. She pulled herself into a more dignified position, crossing her legs and sat facing her mother's headstone. "Jane, what are you doing here?"

Jane shook the bouquet of flowers in his hand. "I'm doing a bit of visiting myself. Do you mind if I sit?"

"Would it matter if I did?" Lisbon quipped.

"Yes, it would," Jane said seriously.

Lisbon looked at him and saw the sincerity clearly shown on his face. She tapped the ground next to her, and he sat. Why she did it, she didn't know. It just seemed like something that needed to happen. She didn't say anything, just looked at the writing in front of her, carved into stone.

"You know," Jane started, "Alisha was my only real friend in high school," he looked over at Lisbon to gage her reaction. She still didn't move her gaze from the carving. That could only make things easier. He hadn't ever said his wife's name before, but he could tell Lisbon knew who he was talking about.

He continued, "I had plenty of people to talk to, but she was the only person I felt I was always honest with. My parents were rather aloof, and I didn't have any siblings. It started off with us just being friends, then close friends, and then an unofficial couple, before it was finally official at junior homecoming."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lisbon asked suddenly, finally looking at him.

Jane answered honestly, "When James, Jack and I were making dinner the other night, we got to talking. At the end James pointed out how funny it was that all of us, you, me, Rigsby, Cho, and Van Pelt, put our lives in each other's hands all the time, but in truth we hardly know each other."

Lisbon didn't say anything else and turned her head to look at the stone once again.

Jane took that as permission to continue speaking. "Alisha and I got married two years out of college. Stephanie came two years later. She became our lives. Making sure she was happy was our top priority. She was so smart. Alisha had begun teaching her to read when she was four, and she had the basics of it down when she was five. She was going to read me a story when I came home. I'd been looking forward to it all day. I was so proud…" he trailed off.

Lisbon looked over at him again. He was staring straight ahead, not focused on anything. She knew the day he was talking about.

Jane cleared his throat and went on further, "I remember they were still warm. If I'd gotten home at the time I normally did…"

"You'd be dead too," Lisbon said flatly. She appreciated his being open, but she wasn't going to allow him to beat himself up about something he wouldn't have been able to stop.

Jane turned his head to look at her briefly before looking blankly forward again. "That'd be better than this," he stated.

"No it wouldn't be," Lisbon continued with her brutal honesty, "If you'd died with your family, there wouldn't be anyone out there as determined and skilled as you to catch Red John. Families wouldn't ever get the closure of knowing who took their loved ones away."

"If I were as skilled as you claim, Red John wouldn't be walking and breathing anymore," Jane maintained a calm voice. The fact that he could say something like that so casually made Lisbon shiver. "I'm sorry," Jane admitted honestly, "you don't like it when I talk like that."

"No, I don't," Lisbon confirmed. "We're going to find him, Jane. We will."

"So what? You find him. Then what happens? He goes to jail? Maybe, if we're lucky, he gets the death penalty. That's still not justice. You've never seen his real work. It's disgusting!" Jane didn't sound like his normal self. The part of him that he normally kept repressed and under control broke loose. "He cuts deep, just at the right places. He makes sure his victims suffer as much as possible before they bleed to death. He doesn't just kill, he tortures! He deserves nothing less! He deserves nothing so humane as jail or the death penalty! He isn't human! He can't possibly be! What human could do something so horrible and live with himself? No, he's a beast, a demon, and should be treated as such!"

Lisbon cut Jane off by putting a hand on his shoulder. Jane didn't realize that he was shaking. He breathed deeply, trying to regain control of himself. He hadn't lost it like that in years.

Lisbon watched as the normal, under control Jane repossessed his body. Only then did she remove her hand from his shoulder.

She looked back at the carved stone in front of her and began running her hand over the name, _Maureen Lisbon_, as if hoping it would erase the writing. Jane had opened up to her, shared a part of his innermost self. It seemed only right that she should do the same. The thought made her uncomfortable, but at the same time, she wanted it.

"When I was nine, I took up viola," she began. Jane's head snapped towards her, paying close attention. She ignored him and carried on, "My mom used to play. She was a nurse. She was helping to stabilize a guy that was higher than a kite, and discovered that he had a knife a moment too late. He pulled it out and drove it through the middle of her hand. She recovered pretty well, but it hurt to play viola. She loved and missed it so much that I took it up for her, so she could still hear it." A small smile played on Lisbon's lips as she traced the letters with a finger.

"I was twelve. Mom picked me up from my viola lesson. I put it in the back seat, and she invited me to sit in the front. I was too young, but she promised she wouldn't tell the police," it was here that Lisbon paused briefly; wondering whether or not she really wanted to continue.

It was too late to back out. With a deep breath, she went on, "I felt so special. We were having a great time. She decided that she wanted to surprise me with ice cream. We headed off that way. We had a green light, so she drove into the intersection. Then there was a honking coming a little down the way from my side of the car. There was no way we were going to avoid that car. My mom turned the wheel, hard. She took the hit that I should have."

Lisbon swallowed. The story was just getting harder and harder to tell. "I passed out. She'd taken most of the hit, but I'd still hit my head and gotten a couple of cuts and such. I woke up in the hospital later. My dad… he was in the room when I woke up. The first thing he said to me was, 'Why would you let her do that?'"

Lisbon wiped off a tear running down her face. "He was so angry. I understood that. What I didn't understand is why he was angry at me. I couldn't control what she did! I don't know why she did what she did! It would have been easier on the family to be one child down rather than one mother!"

"You don't have children, Teresa. Until that day, you can't possibly understand what a parent would do if it meant even the slightest chance of saving their child," Jane soothed. "You were worth the entire world and more to your mother."

Lisbon sniffed disbelievingly. "Yeah, well my dad didn't live that out. I mean… he was angry at me because she chose me over her. That'd be like if your wife had advanced notice that Red John was coming and she'd used her small amount of time to hide your daughter. Would you be angry at your little girl? That's the equivalent of what my mom did, and my dad was angry at his little girl."

Jane's face was completely fallen. There was no trace of any good emotions.

"When I got home, nothing was the same. My dad was someone completely different. He might as well have become that driver that hit Mom's car. He drank so much! As time went on, he got more and more aggressive. He started cussing at me and my brothers, said that we were worthless and he didn't know why he kept us around. You know," she said with dark sarcasm, "harmless verbal abuse like that. Eventually, that wasn't enough. He started throwing things. Anything would do."

Lisbon's mouth was increasing the amount of poison it put out with its words.

"I tried to get him to stop. There was one night that I found his various bottles of alcohol. I took them outside and started dumping them out. He caught me. That was the first time he actually, hands on, hurt any of us. I was limping for a week, no matter how hard I tried not to. Things only went downhill from there. I kept Tom, James, and Jack as safe as I could. We abandoned our rooms during the day and stayed in the basement as late as we could. Tom slept in the twins' room. Our lives got crappier and more painful as time went on.

"10 months after the crash, I was thirteen, Tom was eleven, and James and Jack were 6. My dad woke me up really early in the morning. The only time he ever did that was when he couldn't find his way to his own room, or couldn't find the fridge, or couldn't find his keys, or he was just really upset. I was terrified when I went into the front room. Tom, James, and Jack were sitting on the couch. I knew it couldn't be good. But then I noticed that my dad wasn't acting like he had been. All of a sudden he was happy, cheery, and acting nice. I was really suspicious, but I cooperated rather than risking my brothers' backs," Lisbon's voice was shaking now.

Jane didn't say anything. If he interrupted, the story would just be that much harder to tell.

"We got into the car, I was in the passenger's seat, and my dad drove. He wouldn't tell us where we were going. Claimed it was a surprise. He wasn't lying, really. I noticed that he was going way over the speed limit. Then I noticed that he wasn't slowing down when we approached a turn. _Then_ I notice that the turn was there to keep cars from going down a rather steep hill. He still didn't slow down. Just before we went down, I reacted. I grabbed the wheel and turned it. The driver's side hit a tree, and the car was stopped, but it was threatening to tip."

Lisbon took several deep breaths and wiped away a couple of tears before talking more, "Tom got James and Jack out of the car quickly enough. My buckle was stuck, and my leg hurt like hell. Tom remembered that my dad always had a knife on him (How could he forget when he had scars to prove it?), and he went over to the driver's side. I don't know how, but he got a pocket knife off Dad's dead body. He came over, cut my seat belt, and helped me over to the side of the road where he'd put the twins. Just a couple of minutes later, the car finally gave up and rolled down the hill," Lisbon finished.

"That must have been very terrifying." Although Jane's face was devoid of emotion, his voice certainly wasn't.

"It was. I can still smell and hear everything when I think about it." Lisbon took a minute to recover slightly.

"We moved in with Mom's parents, but my grandpa was really sick. His medical care cost was through the roof. They could only help us financially so much. Tom and I started grabbing every opportunity we got to make some money. I never stopped working after that. Neither did Tom. He started talking about going into the Army his senior year of high school. We argued about it all year long. But he won, and then he enlisted after graduation. I'll admit it was nice to have the money coming in right away instead of having to spend a ton to get him to college."

Lisbon looked over to her left. Jane read the inscription. _Thomas Lisbon._

"Two and a half years ago, Tom was in Iraq. His convoy was ambushed… I didn't go to work for a long time. Tom was my best friend. We'd spent so many nights staying up later than needed to talk. He'd always been right there, helping me through things and taking care of James and Jack. He was such a great person. His army friends still visit him, me and the twins when they're on leave."

"Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions?" Jane asked politely.

"Only a couple?" Lisbon said sarcastically while wiping off her face with her sleeve.

Jane gave a weak smile. "What was your father's name?"

"Jim," Lisbon replied harshly. She said his full name with a bit of colorful language inserted.

"Why isn't he over here, by his wife and son?"

Lisbon chuckled darkly. "He doesn't deserve it. Tom and I talked about it for such a long time. We eventually agreed on all accounts. Mom wouldn't have wanted him over by her, not after he'd become the monster he had. She wouldn't want the thing that hurt her children laying next to her forever. So he was put somewhere over there," Lisbon waved her hand in a way that could have been any of four directions. "James and Jack still visit him, but I just can't do it."

"Understandable," Jane reasoned. Now he had all the boarder pieces to the puzzle that was Teresa Lisbon.

"The pills," he said suddenly, "the ones James brought this morning. They were antidepressants?"

"Yes," Lisbon admitted smally. "Once I got out of school and had more time to actually think, I began needing them."

"Thank you very much for sharing, Teresa," Jane said. His voice was packed with sincerity.

Lisbon ignored the fact that he'd used her first name and nodded in response.

Jane pushed himself into a standing position. Lisbon looked up at him. He still had flowers in his hand. He hadn't made his visit yet.

"Can I come with you?" she asked quietly.

Jane looked down at her, honestly surprised. "If you really want to." He held out his hand. She took it and he pulled her up.

She followed well behind him for at least three minutes when he stopped. The sight in front of her made Lisbon want to gasp, but she restrained.

Pink marble made up the shape of a third of a heart with a torn looking edge. Next to it was the middle third of a heart, both edges uneven. The two pieces were meant to fit together. The inscriptions were written elegantly. _Alisha Jane_ and _Stephanie Jane_. Lisbon looked at the empty section of grass to the right of Stephanie's grave. That was where Patrick Jane would be buried. His headstone would complete the marble heart. The scene was beautiful, but eerie. It seemed to just call Jane to it, begging him to take his place.

Jane bent down and placed a bouquet of roses on Alisha's grave, and an assortment of brightly colored flowers on Stephanie's. He stood back up, stared for a moment, then turned around and headed the way he'd come.

Lisbon was dumbstruck for another minute before taking off after Jane. "That's all?"

"I don't have anything to say or do that I haven't said or done before," Jane said blankly. "Alisha and I promised each other that whoever outlived the other would assure that there were fresh flowers every week. I've kept that promise and carried it over to Stephanie."

Lisbon fell into silence. When they arrived back at her family's graves, James and Jack were waiting. They had the decency to wait until they were in the small parking lot to begin talking.

"Patrick!" James said warmly, "What brings you to such a place on such a lovely afternoon?"

"I could ask you the same question," Jane replied, "but that'd be rather pointless."

"I see your point. There's only one reason anyone would ever come to a cemetery, I suppose," James looked thoughtful. "Unless you're a grave robber, but I doubt it…"

Jack looked around the parking lot. "Where's your car, Patrick?"

"I walked," Jane responded with a shrug.

"That just won't do! It's a ten minute drive; I can't calculate how long the walk is!" Jack broke his own voice and mimicked his sister's, "Jack…"

Jack put a hand in Lisbon's face, asking her to be quiet before she spoke and continued in his regular voice, "Come along, good sir! We shall drive you back to the headquarters of CBI!"

Jane smiled, thanked Jack, and then started walking out. He almost walked into the car that pulled up in front of him. Lisbon rolled down the window. "Jane, just get in the car," she requested.

Jane sighed and got into the back seat with Jack.

"Haha! I win," Jack claimed victory as Lisbon drove off.

Jane smiled at him briefly before turning his attention to all the things flying by the window.

"Alright," James said, sitting up in his seat a bit, "Queen Resa, I do believe you wanted to start budget planning?"

"We can talk about that later tonight," Lisbon said forcefully.

"There isn't going to be time later tonight," Jack said with a grin, "You'll find out why later."

Lisbon looked into her review mirror at him suspiciously.

"Anyway!" James called the attention back to himself, "I found a place. Rent was pretty cheap, it'll be fairly easy to cover, and it's close enough to the hospital I'll be working at that I can just bike there."

"Ah! I can up that," Jack claimed with pride, "The vet I'm working with has an extra room in his house, which doubles as his office. He said I could stay there and the work I'd be doing would cover rent fees."

Lisbon smiled. "Good! That just made things a lot easier. We don't have to find another car; only have to pay one rent… Very good!"

"And then we both have interviews lined up for possible jobs after office hours," James tacked on.

Lisbon's smile turned upside down in a second. "I told you both that you didn't need to!"

"Those applications you were hiding under the sink?" James said with a smirk, "I think a pipe leaked…"

"James Charles Lisbon!"

"Take it away, Jack!"

Jack smiled and took over talking for his brother. "Teresa, you're ready to pass out when you get home from CBI. Do you really think you'd make it through working another job on the same day? You wouldn't last a week."

"You two are going to be working all day as well! I told you to take a summer off!"

"Seriously, Teresa, when have we ever done what you've told us?" James asked.

Lisbon huffed and glared at the road, as if it were its fault. "Well what if I got another job anyway, eh?"

"Then you'd be extremely foolish. We like working, Terry! It's fun! And our jobs aren't as physically taxing as yours," James reasoned.

"That may be true, but your internships will be mentally taxing!"

"Good thing the jobs we're getting for after work don't require much mental effort from us!" Jack put in.

"Bartending is second nature. We fly on auto pilot," James said with a smile.

Lisbon was about to respond, but hit the steering wheel and exhaled instead.

"Victory is ours!" James claimed, smiling back at his brother.

Jane smiled briefly and shook his head.

* * *

I have a thing for dramtic stories, what can I say?

I love knowing what you think; it makes me feel like a psychic! Please review!


	18. Chapter 18

Jane spent the rest of the work day playing his conversation with Lisbon over and over again in his head.

He still couldn't believe he'd lost control of himself. He'd snapped completely. That hadn't happened in four years. Sure, he'd been angry, but he'd always maintained control over himself. What made him lose it?

Knowing he wouldn't find the answer anytime soon, he turned to the second half of the conversation. He was completely zoned out when James came over to his couch.

"Patrick! It's time to go home! Come on, get up!"

Jane opened his eyes and leaned up. "Is it really 5:30 already?"

"Yes it is, my friend. And you have no cases since you handed the one you had over to FBI, so you're free to leave!"

Jane stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of the couch.

Lisbon came into the bull pen. "Who are you to tell my team to go home, James?"

"It's 5:30 o'clock! You're off now! Come on!"

Lisbon looked around. "James," she said suspiciously, "where's your brother?"

"Jack? I don't know. I'm not his keeper! He must have wandered off!" James said with a grin.

"James, where is he?" Lisbon was not amused.

"He already headed out. We have to go meet him!"

Lisbon sighed in frustration. "Go home, everyone."

"See ya, Boss!" Rigsby said happily. He grabbed his bag and headed off. Cho was right behind him.

Van Pelt saved the things she had up on the computer before putting her stuff together. "See you all tomorrow!" She smiled at everyone before leaving.

"Patrick!" James exclaimed suddenly, his smile returning full force, "What are you doing for dinner?"

Lisbon's eyes snapped open wider and she glared at her brother.

"Nothing interesting," Jane admitted.

"You're doing something interesting now! Come on!" James said, throwing his arms over his head with joy.

"No, that's alright. You and Jack have something planned."

"Those plans can easily be expanded to include another person."

Lisbon pursed her lips and went to her office to grab her bag, hoping James wouldn't win the argument.

James watched her go. The door closed, and he began talking hurriedly, "Look, Patrick, we need you there! I know you know what we're doing."

Jane smiled. He did know. "Alright, I'll go. I'm curious to see how this will play out."

James grinned and shook Jane's hand.

Lisbon came out of her office and groaned. James had won. She'd had enough of Jane for the day! She didn't want to answer anymore questions, which he had undoubtedly come up with.

Lisbon didn't wait for them as she went to the elevators. They had to hurry to get in before the doors closed. Jane looked back at her. Lisbon was definitely not happy. "I promise I'll behave," Jane teased.

"Sure," Lisbon responded, clearly unconvinced.

James's smile didn't fade at all as they all headed out to Lisbon's car. She stopped Jane from opening the door. "You drove here this morning."

Jane looked at his car across the lot. "That I did. I'll catch a cab back home and take the bus in the morning!" He turned around and smirked.

Lisbon looked skyward before opening the driver's door.

"Naaah!" James shouted. "I'm driving."

"No, you're not. You can direct, but you are not driving my car again!" Lisbon corrected.

"Oh, you of little faith. Do you think I'd drive the way I did yesterday if you were actually in the car?"

"Yes."

"Oh..." James seemed to consider her answer. "Well, that's too bad. I'm driving anyway." He held up her keys.

"Quit pick pocketing me!" Lisbon demanded as she reached for her keys.

James raised the keys above his head. Lisbon couldn't reach them. James was taller. He smiled down at her. "I believe I win, and that you are going to sit in the passenger's seat," he said smugly.

Lisbon glared and snarled, but eventually went to the other side of the car. James smirked and got into the driver's side.

"Ok, I'm in, you have the keys," Lisbon stated as she buckled, "Now where the heck are we going?"

James looked offended. "If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise!" He started the car and drove off.

Lisbon turned around in her seat. "Jane, where is he going?"

Jane smiled and his eyes glittered mischievously. "I can't tell you either. You'll find out soon enough." The smile on Jane's face grew to a grin as Lisbon huffed and turned forward again.

Seven minutes passed. Lisbon began acting suspicious. "James… Tell me we are not going where I think we're going."

"I don't think I know where you think I'm taking you." James grinned childishly. "Patrick, do you think that my thinking about her thinking is correct?"

"I think you're just trying to aggravate poor Lisbon."

"And I'm doing a fantastic job, am I not?"

"Marvelous," Lisbon said sourly. The car turned. "James!" Lisbon suddenly sat up much straighter. "I could have driven to my apartment without your help!"

"I know you could've. But that wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun as me driving there," James responded irritatingly.

Lisbon kept quiet the rest of the way. James parked, and she got out and hurried towards the stairs leading up to numerous doors.

"Out of curiosity," Jane started as he and James walked slowly towards the building, "why did you want me here?"

"Because Terry is going to want to yell at me and Johnny. Someone is going to have to serve as entertainment." James gave a wide smile and walked through the open door on the third floor.

Jane could see the table set nicely in the kitchen. Jack popped out of nowhere. "Patrick! You came! Fantastic!" He skipped back to the kitchen to set another place.

Lisbon came out of her room and shut the door. She glared at James and Jane, then went to the kitchen. Jane observed as she slapped the back of Jack's head.

"When does the guest of honor get here?" Jane whispered.

James looked at his watch. "Any time now, actually."

"You aren't going to warn your sister?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Jack! Seriously! You set the table without being asked, and the oven is heating up! What is wrong with you?" Lisbon exclaimed.

"I can't make dinner for my siblings?" Jack asked innocently.

"You don't have any ingredients!" Lisbon snapped. Then she took a deep breath to attempt calming down a bit. "Alright. Someone is coming with the food, yes?"

Jack shrugged.

"Do I need to dress up in any sort of way?" Lisbon sounded extremely frustrated. But what else could be expected? A stranger was coming to her house with dinner. That made her nervous based on the fact that she was a woman, and that feeling doubled because she was in law enforcement.

Jack gestured to his torn jeans, regular t-shirt, and skull cap. "If I'm not dressed up, what makes you think you have to be?"

Lisbon was cut off from answering by the doorbell ringing. Jack jumped and scrambled towards the door. "I'll get it! I got it! I got it! I'll get the door!"

Jack opened the door to reveal an average height, blonde haired, green eyed, smiling and anxious looking woman.

* * *

-dramatic music- Who could it be?

Ok, I have to be honest with you all. I've backed myself into a corner with this story. I've written a little ways ahead, but other than that, I have no clue where I'm going. I suggest warming up to the idea that this story may be put on hold sometime in the near future. I'm sorry! It's just the way things work! Stupid brains. I don't know why we have them.

-sigh- Anyway, I would really appreciate knowing what you tought of the chapter! Review, please!


	19. Chapter 19

Yes, it's true! After a two month hiatus, I'm back! I had to go back and rewrtie stuff because I was making people go waaaayyy out of character.

Anyway... I meant to update on Thursday before the season premier, but then I got distracted... by the fact that the first season that I had ordered previously came in. I may have watched those... all day.

I'm rambling. Here's the long awaited chapter nineteen!

* * *

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

Jack took the bags the woman was carrying and handed them off to James before hugging her. Lisbon watched from the doorway of her kitchen. She'd put most of her weight on one leg and crossed her arms. Jane sighed silently and sat back on the couch to watch the scene unfold.

"Cassie, this is my big sister, Teresa. Teresa, this is my girlfriend, Cassie Clement," Jack smiled, but Jane saw through it. Jack was extremely nervous that Teresa wouldn't approve. Jane looked Cassie over. She was unobviously as obviously nervous as Jack. She wore heels, fairly new jeans, a high-rising camisole under a deep green v-neck shirt, silver earrings, and had her hair pulled back in a low pony tail. She was dressed to impress. She stood a respectable distance away from Jack and was trying to keep her smile from faltering.

Lisbon attempted a smile and shook Cassie's hand. "It's nice to know about you!" she would have sounded completely normal if that had been phrased differently. Without looking away from Cassie, Lisbon asked in Spanish, "_James, how long?_"

"_Six months and a half months…_" James answered back in the same language.

"_You both promised! You PROMISED!" _Lisbon snapped, finally looking at James. "_You both gave me your word you wouldn't keep anything from me!"_

James stuttered for a moment.

Lisbon brought the fake smile up onto her face again. "I haven't run yet today. I'll be back in a few." She retreated to her room to change and left five minutes later.

Cassie pursed her lips and made to grab her purse.

"No you don't!" Jack exclaimed, grabbing her wrist.

Cassie turned around to show her red eyes. "Jack, let me go! She doesn't want me here!"

"Sure she does! She just… had a bad day at work!"

Cassie scoffed.

"Patrick!" Jack called. "Back me up!"

"Her day actually was half decent until about ten minutes ago," Jane said passively from the couch. "But if you leave now it'll only get worse," he commented as Cassie broke free of her stunned boyfriend's grip.

Jane pushed himself off the couch and walked toward Cassie, staring her straight in the eye. "If you leave, she'll think badly of you, think that you can't handle pressure. Lisbon will be fine after her run. She'll like you." In response to the disbelieving look, Jane continued. "You dressed modestly, aren't wearing an excess of make-up, and aren't hanging on her brother. She'll also approve of your psychology major. And Italian food is her favorite."

Cassie looked from Jack to James, neither of who offered an explanation.

Jane smiled widely. "I'd recommend starting on the pizza." He returned to the couch to lounge.

Jack ushered Cassie into the kitchen and James followed. The three college students got along marvelously.

"Jack…" Cassie said forcefully, "Don't you dare!"

"It's only flour!" Jack defended.

"This is a new outfit!"

Jack sighed. "Alright, since you're kind of cute, I won't."

"Awwwe!" James said, imitating a teenage girl.

"Shut it, Jim!" Cassie snapped. Jane could almost hear her face turning red.

Thinking baby-sitting might be in order, Jane hauled himself off the couch and into the kitchen.

"You know," Cassie said, throwing a pinch of cheese into her mouth, "I don't know who you are."

James dropped his ball of dough on the counter with a loud thump. "You're a psychology major and you don't know about the notorious Patrick Jane?"

Jane saw something flit through Cassie's eyes as his name was said. Pity? She knew about him.

"No, I don't. Should I?" Cassie asked. Jane eyed her suspiciously. Why would she pretend not to know about him?

"He's only psychic, of course you shouldn't," James said with the sarcastic air of it not mattering.

"To satisfy your curiosity, Miss Clement," Jane said with a smile, deciding to play along, "I'm Patrick Jane. I work with the eldest Lisbon."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jane!" Cassie said. She turned toward James. "See? That's all you had to say!"

James mimed Cassie with his hands and a stupid look on his face.

"Gah!" Jack exclaimed from his knees, his head in a cabinet. "Jim, where'd Terry put the can opener?"

"I dunno," James said with a shrug. "Use your keys. Works for me."

"I can tell you they won't be in there," Cassie said. "Check the drawers!"

"You check them!" Jack suggested.

"Oh, yeah. There's a good idea. Your sister would come in and see me. Now wouldn't that be fun?"

Jack started laughing and pulled himself out of the cabinet. He began imitating his sister, "What are you doing in my kitchen drawers, Miss Clement?"

James picked up Cassie's voice, "Uh… um… I was…"

"Not a good enough explanation! Where's my gun?" Jack collapsed into another fit of chuckles along with his brother.

Jack and James didn't notice Cassie's nervous expression.

Jane chuckled a bit himself. "Relax, Cassie! Lisbon likes to leave work at the office."

"Ah, but what about her lovely weapon?" James teased. "She cleans it every night, just to make sure it's in perfect condition whenever she needs it!"

"That's not funny, James!" Cassie snarled.

"Ok, ok! Fine! We're done!" Jack said, wiping his eyes off on his sleeve. "Let's get this thing done and into the oven, shall we? I'm sure our dear Teresa will be famished after her million mile run!"

Fifteen minutes later, James held a pan above his head on his fingertips. "Alright, Clement! What now?"

Cassie kept her eyes on the pan in James' hand. "Put it in the oven."

"For how long?"

"I'll handle it! Just put it in!" Cassie's voice got a bit louder as James began making the pan wobble.

Jack grabbed the pan off his brother's fingertips and shoved it into the waiting oven. "Sorry, Jim."

"Way to take my fun away, Johnny," James pouted.

The front door opened and closed, soon followed by the sound of another door doing the same.

Cassie slid back into her uncomfortable nervous demeanor.

"Relax!" Jack said. "It's only the woman that practically raised me!"

Cassie exhaled unsteadily.

Jane left the kitchen. He waited a while and then walked into his coworker's bedroom.

"What the hell, Jane?" Lisbon snapped, turning around from her closet and sliding its door shut. She had changed, though her hair was still dripping wet from her shower.

"Have a nice run?" Jane asked, as if the situation wasn't completely awkward for the other person in it.

"Out!" Lisbon demanded before beginning to towel dry her hair.

Jane, being Jane, made no move to do so. Instead, he sat on the edge of Lisbon's bed. "I'd go with the black flats. Heels are way too intimidating."

Lisbon threw her towel at Jane and retreated to her bathroom, which unfortunately for her, did not have a door.

"Curly hair is friendlier than straightened hair," Jane commented, folding the towel and placing it beside him.

Lisbon stood in her bathroom doorway. "What do you want?"

"I'm only trying to help."

"I've been dressing myself since I was five, Jane. I think I can do it without your help!" Lisbon snapped. She turned around and went back to her bathroom.

Jane smiled as he caught sight of Lisbon plugging in her curling iron in the mirror. He went over to her closet, opened it, and pulled out the black flats he saw when he first came in and headed to the bathroom with them.

Lisbon snatched the flats out of Jane's hands and threw them into the main area of her bedroom. "Too far," she snarled. "Get out of my room!"

"Why are you so upset?" Jane asked, sitting down on the edge of the bath tub.

Lisbon decided to try a new tactic and ignore Jane as she began to curl her hair.

"You missed a spot," Jane pointed out.

Lisbon looked in the mirror and noticed that she had, in fact, missed a lock of hair. She went to grab it, but then suddenly put the curling iron back on the counter and turned to face Jane with her half-curled hair. "If I answer your question will you get out?"

"Maybe," Jane said with a shrug.

"My God, you're creepy!" Lisbon said, turning back toward the mirror.

"Why are you so upset?" Jane repeated his question.

Lisbon sighed. "You heard why."

"How'd you know I speak Spanish?" Jane asked, a smile creeping onto his face.

"I've got access to your file, Jane," Lisbon said.

"Alright, so they hid something from you. What's to be upset about?" Jane questioned.

"We all promised each other we wouldn't hide anything from each other. That hasn't been broken since I was thirteen. Until now I thought I could account for every day of my brothers' lives. Sorry if I feel a bit upset right now," Lisbon snapped, holding the curler in place in her hair.

"You've kept things from them," Jane pointed out.

"Yeah, I didn't tell my younger brothers I could have made a bit more money by taking up those offers to become a prostitute or drug mule. My mistake!" Lisbon pulled the plug on her curling iron and grabbed her foundation.

"But you did keep it hidden."

"I kept a negative hidden!" Lisbon defended herself. "Jack kept his girlfriend from me for six and a half months! How is having a steady girlfriend a negative?"

"They like knowing they can keep something hidden from you. It's part of growing up. James and Jack are just going through the teenage 'I won't tell my parents anything' phase a bit late."

"Real funny, Jane!" Lisbon snapped, leaving the bathroom and coming back a moment later with the flats she had thrown previously.

"They like knowing they can keep something from you. All the failed surprises, all the times they got in trouble and tried to hide it, all the times they lied," Jane left his sentence hanging.

"What purpose does it serve?" Lisbon asked as she took her shoes off the wrong feet to put them onto the correct ones.

"They don't like you worrying. If something's going wrong they want to handle it themselves instead of bothering you."

"I don't get bothered when they ask for help," Lisbon pointed out.

"They feel like an inconvenience. They're adults, they should take care of themselves," Jane reasoned.

Lisbon scoffed. "Have you met my brothers, Jane? You weren't at dinner the other day when they both stuck straws up their noses and pretended to be walruses."

Jane stood up and looked Lisbon in the eye. "Let them go, Lisbon." He strolled out of the room and returned to the couch to await the dinner call.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Even though I've been very cruel and kept you waiting a long time, would you review please? -puppy dog eyes-


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

"Look at this deliciousness!" James said greedily, looking at the home-made pizza sitting on the kitchen table.

Jack sliced the pizza as everyone took their seats, though he made sure Cassie had no other option other than to sit next to his sister.

"Your recipe, Cassie?" Lisbon asked, scooting her chair in so James could get past to grab napkins. "There's no way these two could pull something off like this."

"Jack and Jim helped a lot," Cassie said, blushing slightly.

"Yeah, with you whipping our backs the entire time," James said as he fell back into his chair.

"That's not funny, James!" Lisbon snapped, glaring briefly at her brother.

"I thought it was amusing," James said with a shrug.

"Because you don't have scars from it actually happening to you," Lisbon muttered sourly. Only Jane heard.

"Now that we're all settled," Jack said, "would you like to leave for a moment, Patrick? Or are you going to stick around?"

Jane smiled at Jack before excusing himself to go to the bathroom.

"What was that about?" Cassie couldn't help but ask after praying.

"Jane's an atheist," Lisbon supplied while giving everyone a slice of the homemade pizza.

"That's sad," Cassie commented.

"There's not much we can do about it with his reasons," James said as he reached across the table for the pitcher of water.

"Reasons?" Cassie asked.

"They aren't any of your concern," Lisbon said curtly.

James looked over at Jack and mouthed, "PMSing?"

Jack nodded, but stopped and smiled immediately when Lisbon looked up at him.

Jane returned and sat down. "Did I miss anything interesting?"

"Oh, well there was a parade of elephants that passed by just a moment ago. Then after them came a couple of albino peacocks," James said casually. Jane only smiled.

"I thought the peacocks were on top of the elephants," Jack put in.

"Maybe it was a bit of both. I bet the peacocks at the back just got motion sick and asked to get off," James suggested.

"What's your major, Cassie?" Lisbon asked. James and Jack stopped talking and found themselves very interested in their food.

"Psychology," Cassie answered.

Jane tried not to laugh as he watched what was before him. Lisbon was slipping into her interrogation room self. She was after information. Cassie, on the other hand, was trying very hard to not lose control of herself. Jane noticed her hands were shaking slightly when she reached for her water, then changed her mind suddenly.

"Why are you still in school? Aren't you the same age as Jack?" Lisbon continued questioning.

"I am," Cassie replied. "My parents wanted me to put myself through school."

Lisbon frowned slightly. "What do they do?"

"Mom's a chef and Dad's a vet," Cassie said. Jane quickly took a drink of his water to keep from laughing. Things were likely to roll downhill in ten… nine… eight…

"Vet?" Lisbon said interestedly. "Where's his practice?"

"About three hours from here," Cassie said quickly.

"I'm curious. How far away does he live from his office?"

"Actually… they're the same building…"

"Really?" Lisbon said with emphasis. She looked over at Jack, who was finding his ordinary glass extremely fascinating.

Lisbon returned to the previous subject. "A vet and a chef… looks to me like they would have been able to get you through school."

"They could have," Cassie said honestly. "But after my brother's failure to be responsible and his sudden disappearing with a couple of his friends and a chuck of cash, they decided I should be responsible for myself."

Lisbon looked a bit surprised at the anger Cassie had put into her words.

"Does anyone care if I take the last piece?" James asked, clearly unaware of what was going on around him. After being given the all clear, he snatched the piece and bit into it before anyone could change their mind.

"Why psychology?" Lisbon returned her attention to Cassie.

"It's fascinating!" Cassie said simply.

"Therapist, right?" Jane spoke for the firs time since the meal had started.

"That's right."

"You're too good to be a therapist."

Cassie looked at Jane confusedly.

Jane grinned and leaned back in his chair. "That's what I'm talking about."

"Jane," Lisbon said irritably, "no mind games now."

"I didn't start it," Jane responded childishly.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Jane?" Cassie asked.

James and Jack scooted their chairs back from the table slightly.

"You'd better watch this one, Jack," Jane suggested. "She'll trick you into shoe shopping if you aren't careful."

"She already has," Jack admitted shamefully. James shoved his fist into his mouth to keep from laughing.

"From the moment you saw me, Miss Clement, you've known who I am," Jane began his explanation. "Yet you've done a marvelous job of covering up the fact. I can't quite figure out why."

Cassie lost all signs of being nervous as she began playing Jane's game. "I have known who you are," she admitted.

"They why have you been hiding it?"

"What fun would it be to say that I know who you are? It's not nearly as fun as trying to figure you out."

"I'm sure you already have me figured out."

"Everyone knows that you're broken," Cassie stated. "But how many people know about your personality? What makes you angry? What makes you happy? How you occupy your time?"

"If you can figure all that out about me from the little interaction you've had with me, you're very good indeed," Jane said. "Therapy isn't for you. You'd be far better at using your ability for other things."

"I don't trust myself with other things," Cassie said with a smile. "I get carried away easily."

"Oh, so do I," Jane freely admitted. "That's why I've got Lisbon to keep me in check."

"A job I'm sure she'd rather you do yourself."

Jane gave one of his famous grins and looked around at the Lisbons, all of who were looking at him and Cassie with completely shocked faces. "Do we have dessert?" he asked casually.

After a moment, Jack sprang up from the table. "We sure do!" He bounded over to the freezer, took something out of it, and brought it to the table. He pulled off the lid to reveal an ice cream cake that read "Happy 6th Birthday!" and had various colored smiley faces all over it.

"You promised you'd make it!" Cassie said with disappointment.

"Wrong!" Jack exclaimed. "I promised to provide it, and so I did!"

"Did you steal it from some little kid's party?" James asked with sarcasm.

"No, I didn't! It was an order that hadn't been picked up, so I got it really cheap. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Lisbon shook her head at her brothers and then noticed Jane. He was staring at the cake, his eyes moving between the 6 and the red smiley face.

"Sure, Jack! I'll get a knife for you!"

Lisbon's loud statement had the desired effect. Jane's head snapped up and he brought a smile back to his face as he leaned back in his char to watch everyone interact.

Jack slapped his knee. "I knew I was missing something!"

Thirty minutes later everyone was drowsy from the ice cream cake, though fairly content. Lisbon sighed and pulled herself out of her chair. "Come on, Jane," she said as she grabbed her keys.

"Eh. I'll call a cab in a minute," Jane argued, his eyes closed. He looked as if he might have been sleeping slouched in his chair.

"I have to stop at the store anyway. I'll be getting in my car in five minutes whether you're in it or not."

Jane opened one eye and looked at his colleague before stretching and getting up.

"I want my kitchen cleaned up by the time I get back," Lisbon stated, pointing at her brothers.

"As Queen Resa orders," James said lazily.

"Don't help them, Cassie," Lisbon ordered. "If anything, hinder them. They deserve it." Lisbon turned and headed towards her door, ignoring her brothers' questions of what they did wrong.

* * *

"You don't like her," Jane said simply as he slid into the passenger's seat and buckled up.

"Did I say that?" Lisbon asked, throwing the car into reverse.

"Not out loud."

"Well there you go."

Jane smiled. "And you say I'm the one with trust issues!"

"Trust issues? Where did this come from?"

"You don't trust Cassie Clement. That's why you don't like her," Jane said accusingly, turning in his seat slightly to point a finger at Lisbon.

"Yeah, I don't trust her," Lisbon admitted. "I don't like it when people play games with me, which is exactly what she was doing!"

"She wasn't playing a game with you, she was playing a game with me."

"A game in which she pretended she didn't know who you were. Probably just so she could brag to her advisor about how she held her own in a mind game with you," Lisbon said with a snort.

"Lisbon!" Jane exclaimed.

Lisbon jumped. "What?" she said aggressively.

"I'm touched! You're upset because she was messing with me!"

"No," Lisbon quickly denied.

"Yes, yes you are! I mess with you all the time and you don't normally get this angry unless it involves a lawsuit."

"You made me almost wreck my car for that?"

"It's true! Look me in the eye and tell me it isn't!"

"Patrick, can't you see that mommy's busy driving?" Lisbon said as if speaking to a small child.

Jane leaned back in his chair and smiled widely. "Let's say Cassie hadn't been playing mind games. What would you think of her?"

"She's smart, has some pretty good things going for her, modest…" Lisbon left her sentence hang as she concentrated on making a tight turn.

"So overall, you liked her. Interesting."

Lisbon stopped next to Jane's car. "Stop annoying me. Get out."

Jane hopped out of Lisbon's car and into his. Simply because he could, Jane tailed-gated Lisbon until he had to turn off onto a different road. A few minutes later, in his driveway, Jane looked at the text she'd sent him. _"Way to be mature, Jane."_

He looked up at his door, smile fading. Deciding tonight was a great one for joyriding, Jane backed out of driveway and set off without a destination.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Ha! Updated again! Yesssss!!!!

I appreciate feedback in the form of reviews. :)


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